Black River Produce located in Springfield, VT, is a wholesaler of fresh, organic, and specialty produce for more than 2,000 customers, made bold moves last year after deciding to take their local business to a new level. It’s no secret that the facility’s strict refrigeration rules and refrigerated diesel delivery trucks soak up energy like a sponge: a yearly electricity bill of $115,000 compelled Black River Produce to tighten its financial belt. For this company, making a change toward solar was the sensible, and prudent, thing to do.
When Black River put out a request for installation bids, there were two options: use microinverters proposed by Prudent Living or central inverters proposed by each of the four other contractors.
“The building’s multiple roof surfaces and levels guaranteed shading would fall over some panel throughout the day. Using central inverters seemed crazy. Enphase microinverters were the only sensible option for such a complex job,” said Tim Biebel, Vice President of Prudent Living.
Deciding between microinverters and traditional central inverters had the owner of Black River Produce caught in the middle of opposing contractor bids. But when the time came to choose, Enphase microinverters proved to be the last inverter standing.
- Challenge: Transform an energy-guzzling warehouse into a facility as eco-friendly as its organic produce
- Solution: Deploy a 357.6-kW microinverter system atop the building’s complex roof spaces
- Result: 80-90% annual utility bill savings compared to the previous year
Enphase’s 25-year warranty also appealed to Black River Produce, who needed a reliable technology for the long term. Combined with the warranty, the Enphase System offered intelligent monitoring, virtually zero system downtime, and a better return on investment than traditional inverters.
Prudent Living worked hand-in-hand with Enphase’s field applications engineering team to address the challenges posed by multiple roof surfaces, sizes, and orientations. With nearly 1,500 microinverters and solar modules and 62,300 square feet of roof space, the complex electrical design posed challenges when it came time to wire the system together while keeping branch sizes – and communications domains – manageable. Also, having to connect the system across different roofs required strategic transformer placement to help maximize the available space for solar.
Black River Produce’s system is comprised of Enphase M215 Microinverters mounted to AET Racking and attached to Yingli modules. The $1.3 million photovoltaic project in North Springfield, Vermont, is expected to generate enough power to save roughly 80 to 90% of the company’s utility bill. In addition, restaurants, markets, schools, hospitals, and others throughout Vermont and its surrounding states can enjoy Black River’s delicious organic produce knowing their food has been kept fresh by buildings and trucks powered by solar.
Project Details
Size: 357.6 kW
Panels: Yingli Solar
Inverters: Enphase M215 Microinverters
Racking: AET Racking
Designer/Installer: Prudent Living
