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Tips When Starting a Commercial Solar Project

Solar power is a key factor in driving renewable energy solutions and reducing carbon emissions. Private businesses are increasingly implementing solar energy arrays and battery energy storage systems (BESS) to generate cost-effective renewable energy. While their decision to take on a commercial solar project can be relatively straightforward, other commercial entities have additional challenges. Special districts, for instance, must meet strict budgetary and operational requirements, limitations that influence solar project development planning and strategies. 

This guide will cover insights on starting a commercial solar project for special districts, including how to comply with standard regulations and strategically plan for long-term energy goals. 

How Special Districts Benefit From Commercial Solar

Special districts such as sanitation facilities, towns, and transit authorities can benefit significantly from commercial solar solutions. Here are some of the biggest benefits of developing a solar project for a special district. 

Lower Electricity Costs

Solar energy systems allow special districts to generate their own electricity to save money on utility bills. Other forms of electrical energy can have unpredictable prices that make it difficult to budget effectively. Once the solar array is installed, you’ll have low, fixed energy costs that are not subject to market fluctuations. 

Environmental Sustainability

As a renewable energy source, solar power reduces greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on fossil fuels. Many special districts are part of towns or states that have established sustainability goals. Transitioning to solar power can help meet these goals. Solar power can virtually eliminate a special district’s reliance on fossil fuel for its energy needs when combined with battery-storage systems. 

Starting a Commercial Solar Project

Partner With a Reputable Solar Project Developer

Choosing the right developer is one of the most important elements when starting a solar energy project. An experienced developer can significantly simplify the process and guide you through common challenges. Here is what you should look for in a reputable solar project developer. 

Experience

Developing a solar project can be more complex for a special district than for a typical commercial client, given factors such as inflexible budget cycles that dictate timelines, regulatory oversight, and public accountability measures. Look for an experienced solar developer who understands the parameters you’re working with and can help you comply with them.

Credentials

Special districts are generally limited to working with credentialed solar developers. The requirements will vary by state; some states require solar developers to obtain a solar contractor license, while in others, solar developers fall under a more general electrical contractor’s license. You’ll need to work with a solar developer who meets your state’s qualifications to meet your compliance obligations. 

Understand What an RFP Is and Needs

Some states require special districts to issue a request for proposal (RFP) before they perform any public works projects. This is a formal process that involves soliciting bids from qualified contractors. An RFP aims to ensure fairness and transparency in the bidding process, and eliminate favoritism and waste in public projects and capital expenditures. 

While RFPs are typical in many states, there are some exceptions. For instance, under California Government Code Section 4217, special districts don’t have to engage in a competitive bidding process by issuing an RFP if the project meets the following conditions: 

Under these provisions, special districts have the flexibility to work directly with private solar developers on projects where the public benefit is clear. This allows for a streamlined approval process and beneficial financing options. 

Use Smart Solar Financing Options

Special districts have several options available for paying for solar power for municipalities. Here are some of the most common methods.

Power Purchase Agreement

A solar power purchase agreement (PPA) allows your special district to install a solar energy array without any upfront cost. You provide the space for the solar installation, and the solar developer installs the solar panels and maintains the system for the length of your contract, which often lasts 20 to 25 years. In return, you pay a reduced, fixed rate for the power you draw from the system. 

This financing option allows you to immediately benefit from lower power rates and renewable energy without a major upfront investment. As long as you have space suitable for solar panel installation, you can take advantage of PPA financing. Typical installation occurs on the ground, on roof space, or canopies over parking lots. 

The Central Contra Costa Sanitary District (Central San) was able to implement its solar project by working with REC Solar and utilizing PPA financing. REC Solar designed, constructed, and installed a 2.2 MW ground installation near the wastewater treatment plant on unused buffer property. REC Solar will continue to maintain and operate the solar array as part of the PPA agreement. Central San will save an estimated $6 million in net energy bills over the contract’s life. The company was also able to meet its sustainability goals by eliminating 1,865 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. 

Commercial solar installations and projects provide numerous long-term benefits, including cost-savings, environmental sustainability, and a decreased reliance on the power grid. However, they can also involve complex logistical, administrative, and regulatory challenges. 

The simplest way to navigate these challenges is by working with an experienced solar energy developer. They can offer you assistance in planning, financing, and completing your project. 

Even if you can pay for a solar development project upfront, . Entering into a PPA eliminates this hassle and allows you to focus on your primary operational activities while benefiting from renewable energy solutions. 

This was the Anaheim Transportation Network’s (ATN) experience. As part of their strategic plan to electrify their fleet and improve the region’s air quality, ATN turned to REC Solar to design and maintain a solar energy installation through a PPA. ATN will be able to save $4.8 billion over the life of the PPA contract and generate enough energy to power its electric fleet for over 1.2 million miles annually. 

Taking the Next Steps in Installing Commercial Solar

After you find a solar energy developer and decide on a financing option, you’ll need to finish several other steps. However, before starting a commercial solar project, you’ll need to obtain all necessary permits, such as building permits, electrical permits, and any essential solar-specific permits. An experienced partner such as REC Solar can help with all of this. 

REC Solar has decades of experience in solar energy project installation and often works with special districts to meet their specific needs. Reach out today for a free consultation. 

REC Solar announces new Panel Slugging services for customers 

In response to a growing number of businesses looking to expand their positive impact on the environment, REC Solar is excited to announce the addition of Panel Slugging to its growing portfolio of solutions and services. 

Drawing inspiration from the wildly popular “skin slugging” skincare technique – which involves applying a thick layer of petroleum jelly to your face to lock in moisture – REC Solar’s Panel Slugging services will include the delivery of thousands of slugs (and, in select California locations, banana slugs) for positioning on your ground-mount solar arrays.  

The slugs’ sticky, polymer-rich mucus will clean dirty panels and provide a protective layer that prevents scratches from environmental factors (like dust). As an extra benefit, the slugs will help manage vegetation by eating grass and weeds that grow beneath the solar panels.  

It’s the perfect solution for customers who need extra worry-free help maintaining the efficiency and upkeep of their solar arrays after installation. 

Okay, you got us – there’s no such thing as Panel Slugging. But wouldn’t you like to take advantage of a real solution that provides expert operations of your solar assets? 

While we may not offer Panel Slugging services, REC Solar is here to finance your next solar project as a power purchase agreement (PPA).

With a commercial solar PPA, you pay for the energy your solar system produces so leave the operations and maintenance (and any new cleaning trends, fads and technologies) to us.  You provide the site, and our dedicated team of solar experts — humans, not slugs – will handle the design, build, operations, maintenance and system optimization so your team can focus on more pressing matters (like skin slugging perhaps?).  

Visit our Financing page to learn more and connect with one of our team members. 

Full Spectrum: Bittersweet Pride

In this moving article, our graphic designer Lee Riddell shares their experience and the complex and bittersweet emotions they feel during Pride Month. REC Solar is honored and proud to be a part of Lee’s journey.

Like my queer* experience, June is complex and bittersweet.

Pride month, for me, is filled with a lot of grief. Grief for previous generations who lived and died in the closet, their true selves never being seen or loved. Grief for those who fought for liberation and didn’t live to see it. Grief for the generations lost to AIDs, swaths of queer elders who should be here, who instead died alone and neglected in hospitals.  Grief at the possibility that I may have seen the high-water line for our rights in my lifetime, and the constant erosion of them. Grief for our dead siblings, victims of hate crimes and bullying, and some who we believed buried their identities with them for a greater good.

In Pride month there is also, well, pride – the kind of pride that leaves me bawling. Lou Sullivan was one of the first trans men to publicly identify as gay and paved the way for the modern differentiation between gender and sexuality. At the time, it was thought that queer trans people couldn’t exist, and were discriminated against by gender clinics. After being diagnosed with AIDs, he wrote “I took a certain pleasure in informing the gender clinic that even though their program told me I could not live as a Gay man, it looks like I’m going to die like one.” One of the reasons the L is first in LGBT is as recognition of the countless lesbians who helped their gay brothers and trans sisters during the AIDs crisis. When medical professionals refused to touch AIDs patients, lesbians would provide end-of-life care. When unsupportive families weren’t there, lesbians were holding them as they died. When patients passed, lesbians helped with tasks like preserving leather culture from destruction. I’m barely scratching the surface here, there are so many other queer ancestors to look up to.

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I’ve been lucky. I came out at work in 2018 when I started using they/them pronouns. I remember shaking with anxiety as I told my boss, whose reaction was to ask how she could support me. I similarly shook when I told the team that I was going to be transitioning in 2022, but less so, and I received congratulations instead of discrimination. My friends and coworkers have delighted with me as I grow and change, becoming the person I had always expected to see in my reflection. People from our CEO to my boss to coworkers check in with me to make sure everyone is still being cool (they are). Even family, if not always supportive, haven’t been as bad as they could be. I live in a state with strong protections and in a city where I always see other trans people when I’m out. I have a gay psychologist, queer therapist, a trans nurse who helped me become comfortable with self-injections, and a trans friendly barber who gives me tips as I teach myself how to shave.

As lucky as I’ve been, there’s still a lot of anxiety. From the mundane, “figuring out basic hygiene again in my 30s” to the more serious. There was a period where I had begun hormonal transitioning, hadn’t legally changed my name, and needed to have video calls with a lot of outside parties. I had to hope that no one mentioned the discrepancy between the face they saw, the cracking voice they heard, and my previous legal name** – and pray I didn’t experience overt or covert discrimination. I now pass*** on a semi-regular basis, and as open and out as I am about my identity, the possibility of the wrong person seeing my they/them pronouns in my email signature or X on my government ID fills me with dread. On the daily I hear from people who think being trans, especially non-binary, is a mental illness and who think we’re pedophiles. As I write and post this article, I’m bracing myself for bigoted comments – which will reported, deleted, and the commenters blocked because other trans people don’t need to see them. We see enough of that as it is, in the comments of every brand and public figure wishing us “Happy Pride”.

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Transitioning, becoming and loving oneself, in 2024 is An Experience. Living in a state with strong protections and a decently safe city means I’ve begun to meet trans refugees from other states. I don’t cringe at my reflection anymore. There’s a state with a literal “do not travel” advisory from LGBT rights groups and more vying to join them. My voice finally sounds like what I’ve always expected it to sound like.  “Gender critical” could have been something cool like critical analysis of all the ways gender comes up unnecessarily in all aspects of life, but instead is about hating trans people. I see myself in the mirror more and more every day. My ability to use public restrooms is in question in a lot of the country. []. There’s “LGB without the T” groups, as if appeasing oppressors will save them (it won’t). Swapping hormonal experience & tips with trans femmes is beautiful and so sweet. Even as trans medical care is expanding, we still have to crowdsource a lot of our medical knowledge because of how under-studied we are. FTM at work means “front of the meter”. – there’s a lot going on. After planning this post for 6 months and procrastinating on writing it for 2 weeks, I’m still capturing only a sliver of the experience because there’s so much.

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Performative activism doesn’t sit well with me – I prefer a show-not-tell kind of allyship. I manage our social media (in a loose sense, I rely on my coworkers for creative writing & subject expertise) which means I can make calls like, “we’re not going to do a ‘Happy Pride’ post, I’m going to write something from the heart and reshare it.” If you’ve wondered why there hasn’t been a Pride post from REC Solar, that’s why, and this is it. I can be my full self at work. I’m very fortunate to have this support and this opportunity to speak openly, and I guess what I want to ultimately say is –

I’m lucky, but I shouldn’t have to be. This should be the standard.

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*Queer is a reclaimed term, frequently used as an umbrella for sexuality & gender experiences. There is a lot more nuance to this DiscourseTM than I want to get into here.

**for me, my former names carry no emotional baggage and I refer to them as “previous legal name” rather than “deadname”. This is not the case for everyone, and “deadname” is the standard unless you know someone’s preferences.

***”pass” or “passing” refers to being able to be interpreted by others as a binary gender. This is not the goal for everyone, and being able to do so even if only for safety (which is my case) is a privilege. There is a lot more nuance to this DiscourseTM than I want to get into here.

[] Removed “This year was the first since 2018 with fewer anti-trans bills introduced and passed (43 out of 598) than the previous (87 out of 604 in 2023).” At the time of writing on 6/17/24, it was 43 out of 589. 10 days later, it is now 44 out of 617, making this the 6th year in a row with a new record for introduced bills. As of 6/27/24, 225 of those bills have failed.