Rockport, Maine | 4.2 MW

Regular readers of Solar builder You are probably familiar with the Rockport Maces Pond project, our Utility Scale Project of the Year, which we featured in the spring issue in a section on dual-use agrivoltaics / solar. Hell, maybe that’s why everyone voted in favor.

Developer: Blue Wave
Contractor: CS Energy
Owner: Navisun
Modules: Q cells, JinkoSolar
Investors: TMEIC
Mounting: TerraSmart

“Usually at the beginning of a project like this we have to beat the drum and throw ourselves at the property owner,” says Alan Robertson, BlueWave’s managing director of solar development. “The owner in this case really wanted the blueberries to stay on site, which we wanted to do anyway. It was helpful because it is generally a bit of a hassle to convince the owner that it is the way to go because it is a bit more of a hassle. We will be tenants but also owners, with the farmer as subtenant. So fortunately they bought it from the beginning. “

“I am hopeful that this effort will help improve crop production and our ability to work the land for years to come,” says Paul Sweetland, the site’s farmer. “Beyond the benefits for the earth, I am happy to be part of a project that is producing clean energy for those around us.”

For Navisun, a frequent owner-operator partner of BlueWave projects, this was their first opportunity to add a dual-use project to their portfolio.

“We were immediately interested in the opportunity to be at the forefront of agrivoltaic,” says Steven Campbell, managing director of Navisun. “We are long-term owner-operators and we love to feel like we are part of the fabric of the community in the cities where we own our assets, so we are always looking for new and interesting ways to give back. to the community. The other aspect is that we take the environmental management of the industry very seriously. We are not just cutting down trees and putting up solar panels. The blueberry farm was a great way to do it. “

Investigate: To learn more about the impact on the wild blueberry harvest, the project, in partnership with wild blueberry growers, specialist networks and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, will study how wild blueberries perform within a solar array. . As part of the research study, the group will review the impact of construction on wild blueberries. The long-term sensors will collect data to measure the impact in terms of performance in the field and on different types of modules.

“We had our hypothesis from the beginning,” says Robertson. “Together with our head of sustainability, Drew Peterson, we worked with New England Consulting Services on how not to hinder the crop, but also improve its development. When the crop is covered, they t

“Usually at the beginning of a project like this we have to beat the drum and throw ourselves at the property owner,” says Alan Robertson, BlueWave’s managing director of solar development. “The owner in this case really wanted the blueberries to stay on site, which we wanted to do anyway. It was helpful because it is generally a bit of a hassle to convince the owner that it is the way to go because it is a bit more of a hassle. We will be tenants but also owners, with the farmer as subtenant. So fortunately they bought it from the beginning. “

“I am hopeful that this effort will help improve crop production and our ability to work the land for years to come,” says Paul Sweetland, the site’s farmer. “Beyond the benefits for the earth, I am happy to be part of a project that is producing clean energy for those around us.”

For Navisun, a frequent owner-operator partner of BlueWave projects, this was their first opportunity to add a dual-use project to their portfolio.

“We were immediately interested in the opportunity to be at the forefront of agrivoltaic,” says Steven Campbell, managing director of Navisun. “We are long-term owner-operators and we love to feel like we are part of the fabric of the community in the cities where we own our assets, so we are always looking for new and interesting ways to give back. to the community. The other aspect is that we take the environmental management of the industry very seriously. We are not just cutting down trees and putting up solar panels. The blueberry farm was a great way to do it. “

Investigate: To learn more about the impact on the wild blueberry harvest, the project, in partnership with wild blueberry growers, specialist networks and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, will study how wild blueberries perform within a solar array. . As part of the research study, the group will review the impact of construction on wild blueberries. The long-term sensors will collect data to measure the impact in terms of performance in the field and on different types of modules.

“We had our hypothesis from the beginning,” says Robertson. “Together with our head of sustainability, Drew Peterson, we worked with New England Consulting Services on how not to hinder the crop, but also improve its development. When the crop is covered, they tend to be more resistant. “

Construction: Dual use of solar panels as part of a farm is not just a nifty trick. Agrivoltaics could literally be the future of the planet, making all of these early projects crucial to getting on the ground and getting it right.
“It was pleasantly shocking to see a ‘blueberry building plan’ folder on the CS Energy trailer that was about 3 inches thick,” says Robertson. “It was great to see how seriously everyone took it.”

Within that binder were instructions to build solar panels within three different zones, each of which would involve a different level of care ranging from limited, medium, and normal levels of crop disturbance.

“The difficult part initially was finding what we could use to get in and out of very careful areas without disturbing the undergrowth,” says Tom Milos, senior project manager at CS Energy. After initially thinking of plywood, they settled on 4 × 8 sheets of nylon mat. “Once we got the mindset and felt what we were doing with the blueberries, that resolved itself. The terrain was more difficult to work than the blueberry farm, it was rocky and undulating a lot ”.

The sloped site really worked to the benefit of the agrivoltaic component of the die design. Typically, a dual-use array should be set higher than normal, around 8 feet or so, to accommodate the agricultural activity below. That means additional costs, which, so far, in BlueWave’s experience, have been offset by incentives Massachusetts has to assist in the development of dual-use solar. Maine doesn’t have that incentive, but it turns out blueberries don’t need a lot of room.

“The lowest part is 4 feet off the ground, which would have been the height anyway, so we didn’t have to make adjustments,” says Robertson. Even better: “It turns out this site is on a hill and it was sloping to the south. This allowed us to be creative on the construction side and not change too much on the product side. “

What happens next? Maintaining the site will cost a little more than usual, but not much. BlueWave worked with the operations team to come up with a plan for further on-site reporting and verification, as well as a grow plan that matched the owner’s goals and needs of the grow.

“One thing people forget about solar plants is that they are power plants,” says Campbell, reiterating the importance of having safety as a priority. The site has more signaling than usual and has areas of higher voltage sectioned off. “While we want to give farmers access, we have to keep the plant safe and everyone who is safe.”

BlueWave is also funding the manufacture of custom farm equipment to be used within the solar panel rows for wild blueberry management. This equipment will benefit not only the Rockport project, but will also allow the cultivation of other small and difficult-to-grow wild blueberry fields in the state.

Everything from that aforementioned construction binder to that specially designed blueberry picking ATV indicates how much pre-planning work goes into a project like this, both in construction and as part of the long-term ownership and maintenance plan. .

“This project worked because we spent months coordinating the logistics and how we were going to do it before we hit the ground,” says Campbell. “Understanding what Paul and the farmers wanted to do in the long term helped us understand what we could do in our design. All three parties opened their eyes wide and wanted this to be a successful partnership and project. “

This article & photograph originally appeared in Solar Builder Magazine post on November 10, 2021 by Chris Crowell.