Problem: A health facility in Atlantic City, NJ wanted to offset the substantial electric usage of medical equipment, and in order to do so they decided to build a solar-powered carport for their employees and visitors. This would also make use of the unusable yet substantial brownfield surrounding the facility. Despite unique challenges of building the system on seaside brownfield, the completed project offset the buildings electric usage and reduced their carbon footprint. This project was completed as a three-way partnership between TerraSol, JJ White Construction and SunPower. JJ White was responsible for all electrical work, as well as installation of all solar panels and inverters.
Challenges: The scope and location of the project came with unique challenges. Since the property was just several blocks away from the beach care had to be taken in determining the proper safety, wind bearing and snow bearing properties of the carport. The workers would have to endure working with sandy, wet soil types. As a result, significant engineering work had to be done to ensure the foundations for the carport would be able to withstand hurricane force winds and other extreme weather conditions. With the brownfield thrown in the mix, anything taken out of the ground had to be disposed of safely, and any water that came out of these holes had to be properly treated. Finally, Terrasol had to consider intricacies in the electrical wiring, due to it being easily accessible to the public and employees.
Solution: TerraSol and SunPower had their work cut out for them, they needed a construction partner that could handle challenges safely and efficiently. JJ White was able to provide an experienced team that had worked with solar installation before. JJ White is well-versed in the current regulations and electric safety codes, both nationally and within Atlantic City. JJ White also has knowledge and experience with working on the tricky coastal soil types. In order to keep daily operations for the building tenant’s running smoothly, construction was divided into two parts, and only one half of the lot was shut down for construction at a time.
Result: With JJ White’s construction expertise and SunPower’s efficient solar panels, TerraSol Energies provided the tenants of 1801 Atlantic Ave, with a solar carport that offers coastal weather protection to 200 employees and visitors. It has offset the client’s electricity usage by 33%. This means one third of the power for the whole year is provided by the solar panels.