There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony by the City of Marietta and Pickering Energy at the Marietta Municipal Court on April 19th, 2018 at 4:30 p.m.  Members of the community and press are invited and encouraged to attend.

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. Pickering Energy has provided a rooftop solar system which will provide approximately 40% of the energy used by the facility in an average year.

This system is comprised of (216) 350-Watt SunPower solar panels, which create high-voltage DC strings of approximately 750 Volts DC. These high voltage DC lines feed into (2) 30 kW AC SMA power inverters which produces AC power, which is then synchronized with the building’s power, supplied by the power grid.

Under a program called Net Metering this system will provide AC power which is fully integrated with the building systems. The building will use the power generated by the solar system first, then will utilize the power from the existing utility next as it did before the solar installation. 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 City of Marietta gets a credit for this excess generation against their power bill.

The 216 solar panels are all mounted on the roof with the Ecolibrium Solar panel mounting system.  This innovative panel 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 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, so there are no roof penetrations.

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.

For more information, visit the website: http://www.sesllc.us/mmc/
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