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38 The Authority | October 2025 s olar a rray C oNstruCtioN 101 By Ted Onufrak, Special Projects Advisor, Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority In the April issue of The Authority last year, I shared with you my authority’s initial venture into the world of solar energy and the pursuit of an array for providing for our electricity needs. Working with the PA Solar Center and a private consultant, our Request for Proposals resulted in eight responses. After selecting a contractor work began in the fall of 2024 with the expectation of being completed by the end of the calendar year. Three separate buildings rooftops would be utilized to mount 1,632 panels. Each building would require a transformer upgrade. All of the proposals indicated we would be capable of generating more electricity than our facility used, which enabled us to use that excess electricity to power a renewable natural gas (RNG) facility on our property owned/operated by Clean Energy Fuels. The estimated project cost was $1.2 million. Electricity production was estimated to be 939,811 kilowatt hours (kWh), which would be 113.73 percent of our electricity needs. Federal legislation provided for a “tax credit” estimated at $350,000; other grants/rebates were estimated at $71,000 resulting in a total project cost of $745,500. Some other miscellaneous costs included inverter warranties, a maintenance contract and fees that went to the PA Solar Center upon project completion. That brought the project payback to an estimated 7.1 years with an operating life of 25 years. One would think that installing solar modules and inverters would be a relatively simple repetitive process. Think again. Just like any other construction project there are unforeseen obstacles, delays and codes restrictions. Rooftop work has its advantages and disadvantages. We didn’t have to deal with any groundbreaking ceremonies. But we did have to deal with varying weather conditions – not only precipitation from above, but as well as frost cover considering we had all metal rooftops. As each building’s array was completed, a new transformer/ meter was installed and approved by the utility company; then a codes inspection was scheduled and upon code approval a request had to be submitted to the utility for “permission to operate”. That process usually took weeks –sometimes months – to complete. As winter began to set in, the contractor brought in a second crew. With two buildings to go, and a crew on each building, it was our hope to get both done prior to winter’s arrival but unfortunately that didn’t happen. The year ended with two buildings partially done. In hindsight, maybe we should have had both crews on one building, to get it finished and wait for spring to finish the third building. And maybe being behind by a few months doesn’t seem like a big deal, but as I mentioned in my last article, we were participants in a COSTARS Continued on page 65.