Glenville Municipal Center adds solar panels
To Glenville officials, the sun can be used for more than just getting a tan.
Energy savings are being achieved at the Glenville Municipal Center through the installation of solar panels on the flat roof of the building.
The panels also didn’t cost taxpayers anything, because of a grant from the New York Power Authority totaling $100,000 from the Petroleum Overcharge Recovery Fund. Money for the fund comes directly from petroleum companies. Another part of the project has a public education aspect to it, because there is a touch screen in the lobby allowing residents to view break downs of savings over time periods.
There is an instantaneous read out of what the current power output is and there are all sorts of historical data on the power that is being generated. There is a little piece on the solar energy as a science and there are energy savings that are listed on here, said James MacFarland, director of operations for Glenville.
There are instructions next to the touch screen on how to use it and residents are encouraged to come and use it. On a day with clear skies there is a bell curve of energy produced.
The system is roughly a 15kw system and from when it became operational in late March to the current day, June 21, the town had already reaped around $700 in energy savings. The maximum power output for the building is around 1 p.m. on an average day.
`We designed this system to be simple and long lasting and non-problematic,` said MacFarland. `We sacrificed some pure energy output for long-term reliability and ease of maintenance. As it sits right now, we don’t have to do anything with this for 25 years. There is no maintenance to be done.`
The panels are guaranteed for 25 years, but MacFarland said it is likely the panels would last longer.
Since electricity prices could rise in the future, solar panels help offset increases, said MacFarland.
Before Christopher Koetzle became supervisor, he contacted John Hamor, who used to work for NYPA, when Koetzle was a councilman. Hamor, now working for Four Corners Energy, LLC., said was pleased to see that the town move forward with installing solar panels.
`The town has to be willing to go forward and this is one town that is,` said Hamor. `We work with a couple of other towns and counties around here to try and do these things this is a great initiative.`
Also, having the touch screen with accessible, detailed information is a good benefit for local students, said Hamor. He said it could help spark students’ interest and curiosity in the science behind the solar panels.
`Part of this is really starting to educate the public on the use of solar and how it works and how much it saves, so the educational component became a very important educational component to the project,` said Koetzle. `They can choose any dates and find out exactly how much we saved.`
On the second floor in the building there is a room where all the power comes into and enters the three inverters, which convert DC power to AC power. After going into the breaker box the power meter will either take the energy off the town’s bill.
`On a weekend potentially when we are really not consuming that much power it would actually spin the meter backwards and it would come off our bill, because we are putting energy back out to the grid,` said MacFarland.
When Koetzle was a councilman he said he was looking at the budget and how to control costs and noticed the energy costs were a bid part of the town’s expenses.
`This was part of a larger plan and I am glad that it is finally complete,` said Koetzle.
The project from start to finish, including planning, took over a year to get it installed, said Koetzle.
`This is a long term solution to our daily problem of high energy costs,` he said. `We anticipate in a couple years at least there is a return on the costs.`
“
