The Greenbelt Co‐op Supermarket and Pharmacy energized its newly installed 241.6-kilowatt rooftop solar project on Tuesday, February 9. Completed in December, the array had to pass inspection by the county and be energized by Pepco before switching to its operational mode.
“I’m so delighted that the Co-op will be powered by clean energy through this project, and am so grateful to our dozens of Co-op members and community members who invested and donated money to make it a
reality,” said Co‐op Board President Bill Jones.
Power Proceeds
The solar installation is expected to produce 264,000 kilowatt hours of power each year – enough renewable electricity to power 32 typical single‐family homes. This avoids 187 metric tons of carbon pollution (from 200,000 tons of burned coal) annually.
Co‐op expects the array to reduce the store’s yearly electricity bill by $35,000. The system should pay for itself and the new roof it sits on well inside the anticipated 25-year lifespan of both – with the remaining years of savings creating a head start on its replacement.
Co‐op remains connected to Pepco for the remainder of the building’s annual power needs.
Getting It Built
The solar installation was engineered and built by Frederick‐based Sustainable Energy Systems in the Fall of 2020 and consists of 604 Axitec 400-watt solar panels covering approximately 20,000 square feet of the building’s roof. Construction of the roof by Adelphia Contracting started in late 2019 and the solar array installation kicked off in September 2020.
Funding came from Co-op members who initially loaned the store $350,000 and donated $50,000. A $350,000 grant from the Maryland Consolidated Capital Bond Loan program capped the successful Rays on the Roof campaign. “We are incredibly grateful to Maryland State Senator Paul Pinsky, who sponsored our grant request, and the rest of the District 22 team who gave their full support to this community‐based and environmentally responsible project,” said Rays on the Roof Committee member Dorrie Bates.
Kicking Off
The concept of the Greenbelt Co‐op converting to solar first came up when the store was in imminent need of a new roof and resources were short. In a brain‐storming session on likely sources of grant funding, the Co-op board and its grant-writing volunteers realized that adding a roof‐top solar energy project would increase the appeal of the proposal to the state, attract support from environmentally conscious residents and offset the cost of both the roof and the solar array.
The Co‐op team developed a cost‐benefit analysis to underpin the value proposition and the result was the Rays on the Roof project that inspired loans and donations from Co‐op members – and a proposal to the Maryland State Legislature that checked all the renewable energy and community revitalization boxes.
For more information, go to greenbelt.coop or email Kurt@SustainableEnergySystems.net. Drone footage of the roof is available at app.frame.io/presentations/6d179ae0-27c0-4f36-8b9a-b8b51269c289.
