Solar Net Metering Feasibility Analysis
Are you interested in the benefits of on site renewable energy but unsure of the economic and environmental business case? Our team has helped both large and small companies evaluate the technical and economic potential of solar net metering to reduce their electricity costs, carbon emissions and improve resiliency in their building operations.
Context
A large pension fund owned real estate company was exploring the integration of solar PV at a redevelopment of one of their properties.
Improving the sustainability performance of their buildings is an important corporate objective, but they had never installed solar net metering on of their buildings before. The redevelopment was an opportunity to explore the installation of solar as part of the redevelopment’s overall budget and scope.
Challenge
The solar net metering feasibility analysis had to include both technical and economic assessment. Therefore, we had to answer the following questions:
- Did the building have sufficient structural capacity to support a solar net metering installation?
- Did the electrical grid have electrical capacity to allow for the solar net metering installation to connect?
- Was the building electrical infrastructure sufficient to allow for the connection of the solar net metering project?
- Was their enough on-site electrical consumption to justify the solar net metering installation?
- How big of a solar net metering system could be installed on the redeveloped building after accounting for the changes to the roof, the addition of new roof top units?
- Based on the proposed system size what would the economics of the solar system be, including capital, operating costs, paybacks and internal rate of return?
Approach
Compass completed a comprehensive and detailed feasibility analysis that allowed our customer to make an informed decision regarding the ability and benefits of installing solar net metering at their building. Our approach included:
- Completing a structural assessment with a partner to determine the available structure capacity to accommodate a solar net metering installation
- Completing an on-site assessment of the available roof space for the solar net metering installation
- Engaging with the local utility to assess if there was electrical capacity to connect the solar net metered project to grid
- Designing a solar net metering system based on the structural, space and electrical constraints
- Calculating the paybacks of the investment of the solar net metering system based on the building specific characteristics and constraints
- Summarizing the analysis for their internal stakeholders
Results
As a result of our analysis, our client was able to present a detailed feasibility analysis to its internal development team which demonstrated that adding a solar net metered installation would satisfy its payback requirements and as a result, they moved ahead with the procurement of a solar net metered installation for this redevelopment.