Case Studies

The Essex Solar Center is sited on 174 acres in Essex County Virginia and is one of the largest solar projects in the state.  It builds on Coronal Energy’s history of Virginia-sited projects and was made possible through the state’s recently implemented permit by rule (PBR) process through the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Coronal Energy owns and operates the facility and will sell power to Dominion Energy under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA). The facility powers roughly 5,000 homes annually.

COVER IMAGE: NORTH AMERICAN CLEAN ENERGY

Located along the Interstate 64 corridor, the Martin Solar Center is one of two projects totaling 10 megawatts (AC) commissioned in 2017 for CVEC and powers roughly 600 homes in rural central Virginia annually. Together, the twin facilities combine to make up the largest solar project in the state for an electric distribution cooperative. CVEC purchases the projects’ output under a 25-year power purchase agreement, while Coronal Energy owns and operates the facilities.

Located along the Interstate 64 corridor, the Palmer Solar Center is one of two projects totaling 10 megawatts (AC) commissioned in 2017 for CVEC and powers roughly 600 homes in rural central Virginia annually. Together, the twin facilities combine to make up the largest solar project in the state for an electric distribution cooperative. CVEC purchases the projects’ output under a 25-year power purchase agreement, while Coronal Energy owns and operates the facilities.

Coronal Energy partnered with Gulf Power, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy to build 120 MWac of solar PV across three sites in Northwest Florida, providing clean and resilient power to ~18,000 homes.

Coronal Energy partnered with Gulf Power, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy to build 120 MWac of solar PV across three sites in Northwest Florida, providing clean and resilient power to ~18,000 homes.

Coronal Energy partnered with Gulf Power, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy to build 120 MWac of solar PV across three sites in Northwest Florida, providing clean and resilient power to ~18,000 homes.

Located at Brookhaven National Labs, the 37 MW and 190-acre Long Island Solar Farm will feed power directly into the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) utility grid. This system will power local businesses, neighborhoods and cities. It also helps LIPA meet its commitment for renewable energy production.

A 36.5 MWp utility-scale solar farm was developed across three distinct parcels. Approximately 28 MW is located on the largest parcel, while nearly 8 MW is located on the two combined smaller parcels. This interesting project utilized two DC voltages in the solar array and utilized a variety of equipment across the site to meet the customer’s financial goals.

The 225-acre Avalon Solar Project generates enough emission-free solar energy to power 5,620 homes through Tucson Electric Power.

The 26 MWdc (20 MWac) Coronal Lost Hills project generates 54,620 MWh of emission-free solar power, the equivalent of taking 8,000 cars off the road. The project, built by Panasonic and Swinerton Builders, uses photovoltaic (PV) panel technology mounted on horizontal-axis trackers that rotate with the sun’s position in order to optimize electricity generation. This project contributes to Southern California Edison’s fulfillment of California’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requirements.

The Cascade Solar project is located north of Joshua Tree National Park in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California. We were hired to complete the full civil, structural, and electrical engineering, and manage the grading and building permit approval process. We coordinated very closely with the county planning and permitting offices to ensure the project met the county requirements while expediting the permit communications to achieve project commercial operation on schedule.

We delivered the electrical, civil, and structural engineering while also designing in dynamic power curtailment and power factor control capability to meet Arizona Public Service standards for future grid functionality. The Gillespie Solar Generating Facility tracking system utilizes an inverter plant controller capable of curtailing the 16 MWac inverter system to 15 MWac per utility requirements, while also maximizing the plant output during low-production times to maximize client ROI and energy production to APS.

This is a utility-scale solar PV project located just north of Las Vegas. We completed the electrical and structural engineering, as well as on-site value engineering services. The site is positioned in the large watershed of a nearby mountain range. The continuity between our electrical and civil engineering design coordination and stormwater planning was critical early on for the project's ultimate success. The preliminary engineering for this project started in 2012 and was completed in 2013.

The 15-MW project is part of PG&E's 250-MW Utility Owned Generation (UOG) PV Program. Our engineers employed the SOLON standard block sizing and innovative wire management to maintain a low-cost, high-efficiency installation.

This is the first solar farm in this county,  and is located at the Orlando Utility Commission's Curtis H. Stanton Energy Center. The solar farm contains over 25,000 solar modules, mounted on single-axis trackers prominently visible from Innovation Way.

The 25-acre farm is the largest solar generation facility in the state of Tennessee and still one of the largest in the country. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy under Award Number DE-EE0000160. Funding Source: CDFA 81.041.

The Somers Solar Center is a 5 MWac solar farm located in the Town of Somers, Connecticut, with power sales to Connecticut Light & Power. The project was awarded under a competitive solicitation issued by the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, and is the largest operational project in the state.

The Rams Horn Solar Center is a 5 MWac solar farm located in Pitt County, North Carolina, with power sales to the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency (NCEMPA). It is part of one of the largest portfolios of solar projects in the Southeast – a 12-project, 60 MWac portfolio we developed between 2013 and 2014.

The Flemming Solar Center is a 5 MWac solar farm located in Pitt County, North Carolina, with power sales to the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency (NCEMPA). It is part of one of the largest portfolios of solar projects in the Southeast – a 12-project, 60 MWac portfolio we developed between 2013 and 2014.

The Bearpond Solar Center is a 5 MWac solar farm located in Vance County, North Carolina, with power sales to Duke Energy Progress (DEP). It is part of one of the largest portfolios of solar projects in the Southeast – a 12-project, 60 MWac portfolio we developed between 2013 and 2014.

The Upchurch Solar Center is a 5 MWac solar farm located in Wilson County, North Carolina, with power sales to the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency (NCEMPA). NCEMPA consists of 32 cities and towns in eastern North Carolina – including some of the largest cities in the region – that own and operate their electric systems.

This utility-scale solar facility is constructed in a 100-year FEMA floodplain and therefore required some special design considerations from our civil, structural and electrical engineering staff. We acted as the full service civil, structural, and electrical engineer for the project which is spread across 2 distinct parcels of property. We worked closely with the installing contractor and the utility to meet some stringent interconnection requirements.

The ground mounted system is capable of generating enough electricity for about 1,200 average-sized homes.

We were engaged to design and construct this solar facility on a tight schedule. We engineered the full project, obtained construction permits, and coordinated two separate interconnections with the utility company. The local distribution grid had some special needs and therefore we worked with the utility company to provide special inverter system ramp-rates and reactive power controls. This single-axis tracker system was designed to eliminate any grading at the site and therefore has minimal impact on this unique site's location. We continue to operate and maintain this solar facility under a long-term maintenance contract.

We designed and constructed the Gridley Solar Facility in 2012. The electricity generated by the 25-acre project is directed to the City of Gridley and the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). Engineering and permitting was accomplished in nearly 8 weeks and construction was completed in approximately 18 weeks.

We provided the full scope civil, structural, and electrical engineering for the long-term system investor and owner. Our scope also included preparing the Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) and Dust Control plans and negotiating for the final construction permits. Our services also included assistance with bidding the project out for construction and providing construction phase engineering support to assist an aggressive commercial operation schedule.

The Putah Creek Solar Farm is a distributed generation solar facility which we engineered and constructed in 2014. This is one of the first Electric-Renewable Market Adjusting Tariff (E-REMAT) program solar facilities to be installed on the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) controlled electrical grid. We co-developed the project and proposed the ideal solutions to fully permit and construct this solar farm while also maximizing the project's financial returns.

Located on a former manufactured gas storage facility, this system now offsets the emissions produced in generating electricity for 200 homes. A unique design component was utilizing the eastward slope of the available land to maximize the PV system size.

This extensive and architecturally complex campus required a forward-thinking design solution, including both rooftop and carport PV arrays.

From 2010 to 2012, 90 MW was successfully deployed on 25 commercial solar rooftops in Southern California. Part of the initiative includes the largest single solar PV rooftop in the U.S. in 2011, with a rating of 8.55 MWdc on a 1.3M square foot building.

As of December 2009, this was the largest rooftop PV system in the United States. With the busy holiday season looming, there was zero margin for error for the grid-interconnection.

This 500 kW system in Glendora, CA is typical of Walmart’s multi-site solar initiative. We provided engineering and on-site construction management on 22 distinct sites.

This project, consisting of seven separate solar arrays, was financed using a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the town. Electricity generation for the first full year of service is projected at 622,000 kWh.

The Camden Solar Center is a 1.8 MWac solar project comprised of more than 7,200 solar panels spanning seven acres of open water tanks at a wastewater treatment facility. The project was commissioned in 2012 and sells power to the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority.

The Eastern Long Island Solar Project (ELISP) is the largest combined carport installation in the state of New York with over 21 acres of solar panels installed across six different sites. The combined 12.8 MW photovoltaic system feeds power directly to local electric utility, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). We worked with a multidisciplinary team of engineering firms, contractors, and project stakeholders to meet various local and regional codes and standards.

This solar rooftop system is on top of the BART maintenance shop building in Richmond. The system is completely ballasted and did not penetrate the rooftop's membrane, which was a strict requirement from the client.

This rooftop solar system is mounted on top of the BART maintenance shop in Hayward. The building roofs were at different heights, with the center portion of the roof being about 10' higher than either side, so shading influenced the final array layout.

This unique facility for the City of San Diego includes a ground-mounted array as well as arrays built upon two storage tanks. This deployment for the City of San Diego is part of the city's plan to deploy 5 MW of solar capacity.

At time of completion this facility offset 90% of the District's power needs. Engineering challenges included sensitive wetlands area, as well as developing a foundation solution for the 2-acres of bay mud.

This solar energy project reduced the Federal Government Service Administration's energy consumption by more than 1,600 MWh per year; this is equivalent to powering 145 homes in Colorado.

These two projects—Chuckawalla Valley and Ironwood—were part of the California Department of General Services distributed generation initiative. These solar arrays are separated by some distance, but connect into the same electrical distribution feeder.

The solar installation is located in the heart of the 220-acre CU Research Park, home to the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA), and the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building.  The array is a ground-mount installation that will provide clean energy power generation to both research facilities and buildings throughout the Boulder campus.

This is the largest solar energy system to be installed on a college campus to date. The array was designed to accommodate the existing uneven topography of the site without having to perform extensive grading.

Engineering plans for this project were completed in only two weeks. Close coordination by a cross-disciplinary team of geotechnical, structural, civil, and electrical professionals enabled us to provide a solution for this complex site.

At commissioning, this solar facility supplied 80% of the college's energy needs. A new ballasted racking system, along with ideal site conditions, facilitated the completion of the project in record time.

Recognized by the White House for its innovative public-private partnership, the Jefferson County 4.2 MW solar arrays have been implemented into 30 schools.

The Hemet Unified School District had the opportunity to reduce its electric consumption by installing solar arrays on rooftops and carports across the city's various campuses. 

The district ultimately installed solar across rooftops and carports at 17 school campuses. We provided the DC and AC electrical design for the power purchase provider. We delivered consistent engineering documentation and quality control processes to help multiple stakeholders successfully deliver these projects. Our team also contributed by providing system commissioning inspections and as-built drawings.