Marietta Municipal Court
The City of Marietta, OH has partnered with Pickering Energy Solutions to provide renewable energy to power a portion of their Municipal Court Building located in historic Downtown Marietta. This project, developed over a multiple-year program, will provide approximately 40% of the energy used by the facility in an average year.
Monitor PV Power Live
Approx. % Power Gen. 40%
This system uses (216) 350 Watt SunPower solar panels, which create high-voltage DC strings of approximately 750 Volts DC. These DC strings are fed into (2) 30 kW AC SMA power inverters, generating AC power at 480V. These inverters are then fed through a transformer and interconnected with the building power system. Once interconnected, the building will use the power generated by the solar system first, then will utilize the power from the existing utility next. If the solar system puts out more power than the building needs at any time the power goes back into the utility power grid, and the Cit of Marietta gets a credit for this excess generation, which they use to offset the power that they will need to purchase when the sun is not available. Thus, the solar power system will offset the energy used by the building using a ‘net metering’ strategy (power used less power returned from the utility).
The Ecolibrium mounting system was developed in Athens, Ohio and was launched through TechGrowth Ohio, and the office is still housed in the Innovation Center at Ohio University. This group was supported in 2012 by Pickering Associates, providing technical support for their product development through TechGrowth Ohio. This system uses their second-generation EcoFoot 2+ mounting hardware, and the system uses a ballast (weight) system to hold the panels down to the roof. No permanent attachment is made to building structure. This system is designed to withstand 90 mph winds.
This project was installed and is operated by Pickering Energy Solutions under a Power Purchase Agreement with the City of Marietta. The DC power system and components were designed and provided by Third Sun Solar of Athens, and the installation contractor was Pro1 Electric from Parkersburg. Pickering Associates provided the engineering support, and Community Bank of Parkersburg provided the project financing.
