The eighth episode of Dispatches From the Energy Transition, a webinar series hosted by Mayfield Renewables and Outfit, is titled “Installing Solar on Challenging Landscapes.” The presentation highlights the Lebanon Solar Project, a municipal utility-owned array developed on a floodplain for the city of Lebanon, Ohio, near Cincinnati.
Dispatches From the Energy Transition is hosted by Robert Cross, principal at Outfit, a clean tech marketing agency, and Lucas Miller, senior engineering consultant at Mayfield Renewables, which provides third-party engineering services for C&I, small utility-scale and microgrid projects, as well as some education services for the solar + storage industry.
The guest speakers for Episode 8 were:
Kokosing Solar is a Columbus, Ohio-based project developer and self-performing EPC, which installed the Lebanon Solar Project. With company roots in Wickliffe, Ohio, OMCO Solar is one of the top U.S.-based factory-direct manufacturers of solar trackers and fixed-tilt solutions for distributed generation and utility-scale projects. Greenfield and Goodwin discussed the unique challenges of constructing a solar array within a city floodplain and the innovative approach to delivering a customized and effective solution to the project.
Watch Installing Solar on Challenging Landscapes
Project at a glance
The 9.8 MW Lebanon Solar Project is projected to save the city and its utility customers more than $27 million, while helping to diversify Lebanon’s electricity sources and serving as an attractive showpiece for the community.
After a public bidding process, Kokosing Solar was selected as the design-build and EPC partner for the Lebanon Solar Project. In a unanimous vote, the city council approved the $13.4 million solar project largely due to the long-term financial benefits to its ratepayers. Lebanon is the seventh largest municipal-owned utility in Ohio.
The projected cost of the solar arrays will be reduced by about 30% through the federal Investment Tax Credit direct-pay program. This project includes three ground-mount arrays across three city-owned properties, spanning a combined total of 41 acres of undevelopable city-owned land. Kokosing Solar broke ground in April 2024. Kokosing Solar self-performed the full scope of construction.
On overcoming politics
Greenfield: “There’s Red States and Blue States and all that, but I really wish that solar was not politicized. If you think about it, making our own energy right in our backyard, independence, diversification, resilience, those are values that everybody in America can nod their head and agree with. On top of that, the economics are something that we all believe in, as most of us believe in free markets.”
The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the availability of the Investment Tax Credit provided the needed incentive to move forward with the Lebanon Solar Project, Greenfield adds.
“It was very refreshing to have decision makers looking out for their citizens, looking out for what’s the best economics and not being so polarized based on just the fact that somebody at the other party had thought it was a good idea years ago. These decision makers weren’t going to let that color their vision, and they looked at things with clear eyes and decided this was a great opportunity to improve their community.”
On design considerations
Goodwin: “When we look at it from an engineering standpoint, if you’ve got an area that has a history of flooding and you’ve got elevation concerns, and in this case … there really wasn’t another purpose for this site, but normally when we see areas that are identified as floodplains, we know that we need to work closely with the customer to figure out what a minimum above floodplain is.”
Project challenge: Arrays on a floodplain
The challenge with the Lebanon Solar Project was the three arrays were built on a floodplain, which required unique engineering to overcome.
As the solar industry mature, many of the so-called “perfect” or most ideal plots of land for PV are “getting gobbled up and we’re having to turn as an industry to more sites like this one where it’s either unusable land or land that would otherwise be sub-optimal for a solar array,” Miller says.
As an area that has a history of flooding, building on a floodplain requires design solutions that protect the electronics — modules, inverters and wiring — ensure that the mounting hardware — in this case, galvanized steel piles — can withstand a flooding event.
Overcoming challenges
OMCO Solar provided custom pile engineering solution to overcome the site challenges. With an average base flood elevation of 675 ft, OMCO designed four different pile lengths to ensure the PV and electronics maintained the minimum required height. The company provided specific labeling for the piles that were color-coded to provide the pile driving crews information on where to install each section.
Similarly, Kokosing installed the combiner boxes and other electronics at the base elevation to prevent potential flooding damage.
The full “Dispatches from the Energy Transition” webinar is available at https://youtu.be/hyJkGfj9HFk?si=1bE6HjZAtMVgTmYN
Timestamps
Be sure to watch the full presentation at the top of this post, or skip to a specific section below…
- 00:00 – Introduction
- 01:52 – Guest Introductions
- 05:35 – OMCO Solar
- 11:05 – Domestic Content (IRA)
- 14:13 – Domestic Manufacturing: Importance in the Industry
- 17:54 – Kokosing Solar
- 23:02 – The Future: Energy Storage
- 25:22 – City of Lebanon Project – Introduction
- 32:12 – Complex Projects Being Built
- 34:35 – City of Lebanon Project – Floodplain Considerations
- 37:57 – Project Challenges
- 41:35 – Project Timeline
- 44:10 – Custom Pile Engineering
- 48:07 – Other Components
- 53:00 – Community Engagement
- 55:11 – Permitting Process
- 57:30 – Project Results & Key Takeaways
- 1:00:03 – Guest Info
Tags: commercial and industrial, Dispatches, municipal, OMCO solar
