City of Monona
LOCATION: Monona, Wisconsin | CAPACITY: 148 kW (total on 4 sites) | COMPLETION DATE: December 2013
SOLAR CONTRACTOR:
The City of Monona, in south-central Wisconsin, is the first to take advantage of Solar Connections’ Solar Services Agreement, which will yield 10’s of thousands of dollars in reduced operational expense for the City in the first several years of this program. After year 6, the City has the option to buy out the assets at a depreciated value, and own 100% of the system for the remaining 19 years of the equipment’s 25 year warranty.
“When the solar project was first introduced to the Sustainability Committee in September 2012, City of Monona, recognized an opportunity for a collaborative approach to increasing operational cost savings, enhancing community education, and improving environmental stewardship.”
(Monona Solar Project, mymonona.com)
Monona sees this as the least expensive way to go beyond energy efficiency and actually make positive progress toward their 25 by 2025 Energy Independence sustainability goal.
We helped the City of Monona find a tax sponsor and narrow down the solar sites to 4 ideal roofs owned by the City. We put 24 kW on City Hall, 47 kW on the Library, 56 kW on the Public Works garage, and another 21 kW on the Well 3 pump station roof. All together, these sites generate enough electricity to offset about 10% of all the City’s electricity use in a year, or about the equivalent of 18 homes’ worth of electricity per year.
Public Library
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- A crane airlifts pallets of panels to the Library roof.
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- Gravel ballast is swept aside while rails and platforms are assembled.
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- Library-PV panel partnered with 3M reflector panel.
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- Monona’s Public Library will host 47 kilowatts of solar!
City Hall
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- The west side of City Hall showing 14 pairs of PV Wavelets.
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- Staging of equipment on City Hall.
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- Rails are carefully placed, ready for solar racking system.
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- Early morning sun is reflected onto the collectors for better solar yield.
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- Concrete ballast blocks means no roof penetrations for this system.
Public Works Garage
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- All together, there are 51 pairs of solar panels in this array.
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- Pallets of solar modules and 3M reflectors came from Bloomington, MN.
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- A beautiful day to install solar!
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- Workers clean as they go.
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- Backside of panels reflect selective frequencies of light.
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- 55.76 kilowatts of PV atop this metal seam roof.
Slice of Sun Solar Bonds
Legacy Solar Co-op sells Slice-of-Sun Solar Bonds to any member who would like to support a Solar Legacy project like this one, and earn up to 6% interest on their bonds purchased through the co-op. Ready to get involved?
