Northern Sun Energy selected Castillo Engineering to provide design and engineering services on three Onyx Renewables solar projects in New York and Louisiana.
The projects total 18 MW and will be completed by Q1 2025. In fact, one of the projects has already been completed. The 5 MW community solar project in Troy, New York, uses fixed tilt racking and was commissioned in late November.
The remaining two projects are located on the Fort Johnson U.S. Army installation (Fort Polk) in Vernon Parish, Louisiana. Each of the co-located 6.5 MW projects in Louisiana will also use fixed tilt technology.
“The project has two points of interconnection, but they’re located on one parcel, so it looks like one big project site,” explained Christopher Castillo, CEO at Castillo Engineering. Construction in Louisiana began at the end of September and is expected to be completed in Q1 of 2025.
Challenges of the Fort Polk project involved the use of new technology.
“The main challenge in this project was researching new equipment and adapting to emerging technology,” Castillo said. “The skid solution, recently launched by CPS, had limited documentation, so the Castillo team worked closely with the manufacturer to address questions. This collaboration allowed us to create a better, more detailed project design.”
Castillo added that while recloser poles are commonly required on the customer side for added protection, close review of the interconnection documents and confirmation with the utility showed that only a utility-side recloser pole was needed for this project, which he said streamlined development and lowered overall project costs.
“After our team’s thorough research and analysis resolved these challenges, everything related to the utility and AHJ processes went quite smoothly,” Castillo said.
The Army’s climate goals include transitioning all of its installations to 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2030. As of last year, 45% of the Army base’s electricity was carbon-free. Part of how the Army achieved this was through its over 950 renewable energy projects that supply it with more than 480 MW of power. The Army also plans to add 25 new microgrids in 2024 alone. The companies’ work on the upcoming 13 MW Fort Johnson Army installation project will significantly contribute to the Army’s climate goals while providing more reliable and secure energy year-round.
Castillo Engineering has worked with the army on two other occasions, installing solar at Fort Buchanan in Puerto Rico and Fort Liberty in North Carolina (formerly Fort Bragg).
“This is now our third technical project with Onyx and Northern Sun, and it’s been a fantastic partnership,” Castillo said. “It’s rare for entities to come together and share the same value systems. I’m just looking forward to the future, working with these firms.”
New York has become the top community solar market in the country with more than 1.8 GW of operational capacity, or double that of the next closest states. The new 5 MW community solar project contributes to the continued growth of community solar in the state as well as to the state’s goal to generate 70% of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
“Onyx Renewables is a well-respected and highly customer-focused developer that prioritizes quality in all their processes, and we’re glad to be able to work alongside them on this impactful set of projects,” said Chris Balogh, VP at Northern Sun Energy, which is serving as EPC on the projects. “We worked closely with Castillo Engineering to complete the 5 MW project in New York on time and on budget and are excited to collaborate with them again on the co-located Army base projects in Louisiana.”
Tags: commercial and industrial, utility-scale
