ARPA Funds Help Putney Community Cares pay for Solar and Batteries
Below is a recent article in Green Energy Times about our latest investment in our community with the help of ARPA funding.
A statement at the website of Putney Community Cares, Inc. (PCCI) says, “The mission of Putney Community Cares is to foster the health, well-being and independence of all members of our community, from newborns to our most senior, by strengthening family and community bonds. We serve individuals, families, and elders in our community. We provide outreach, direct support, programming and connection to services. Putney Community Cares is dedicated to building and maintaining a vital, healthy Putney community.” It is a mission that the membership of PCCI seems to take very seriously. A look at the services the organization provides is fascinating. It indicates that if a member of the community needs help, PCCI will very likely be able to do that, either by giving the help needed or by helping to find someone who can. The help might be a rather small act, like a drive to a medical appointment, or it might be rather large, or it might be something bigger, such as helping find health insurance.
While nearly all non-profit organizations are interested in donations, the directors and members of PCCI are also interested in other things as well, including having a low environmental impact. The idea of getting energy from solar power was an item of discussion in the days of Putney Cares, one of the original parent organizations of PCCI, and it may have had an increased impulse when that organization merged with Putney Family Services in 2018. The decline in costs for solar arrays had a lot to do with a decision to add a rooftop solar system, which was planned to be developed along with a variety of other, related changes for PCCI’s Red Barn, its main building. It coincided with the addition of a heat pump, which the solar system could power. Because the solar system has a battery system included, the heat and lighting can be continuous, even in the event of a power outage on the larger grid. The heat pump was made by Samsung, and it can be used to provide air conditioning.
PCCI does have a backup oil system it can use, though the heat pump systems of this type we are aware of can go for years without use of such backup. With the solar system installed on the roof of PCCI’s barn, where much of its work is done, that building has been using far less oil than it would have in earlier years. The oil heat was retained but is barely in use. This year, December’s grid electricity use has been very low, and it may be that the annual demand for both lighting and heat will be negative for PCCI, meaning that it will put more electricity onto the grid than it gets. Ruby McAdoo, PCCI’s Coordinator, told us that having the solar system turned on was not like what she expected.
She was not really sure what she expected, but the day the system was turned on was just like any other day. When the day started, PCCI was getting its energy from the grid, but then she became aware of the fact that it was getting the electricity from the solar system. There was no flicker of the power, no dimming of the lights. The solar array went online, and the only way to notice anything different was the electric meter. When we hear of a community-oriented non-profit getting solar power in Putney, Vermont, we might expect to discover that Southern Vermont Solar (SVT Solar) is involved, and so it was here.
Owners Victoria Roberts and Simon Piluski are very involved in the area they live in, and they pay a lot of attention to the non-profit organizations that are near where they live. SVT Solar designed the PCCI system and installed the solar and battery equipment. This maximized the use of roof space to cover the electricity, including the extra loads from the heat pump. It is a 12.6- kW net-metered rooftop system, built on the roof of the barn. The installation uses American-made black Silfab PV Modules, IronRidge racking and components, and Enphase 1Q8A Microinverters.
Any extra electricity the system generates goes back into a cleaner grid. SVT Solar is an official installer for Green Mountain Power’s battery storage lease program and installed two Powerwalls which will power essential loads in an outage. Most of the funds to pay for the solar came from the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA). The investment means that donations to Putney Community Cares goes much more to the organization’s mission, and less to keeping its quarters lighted and warm.
PCC is applying for the elective pay option, a breakthrough incentive program from the Inflation Reduction Act, to cover any remaining costs. The Putney Community Cares website is putneycommunitycares.org.
