Pivoting to solar power

Niagara University recently powered up a 17-acre solar array on its Lewiston, N.Y., campus, working with Montante Solar and Pivot Energy, which will generate the equivalent of 20 percent of its power needs.

By Diane Mettler

Niagara University, home of the Purple Eagles, may soon be called the Green Eagles.

The university, located in Lewiston, New York, is now also home to a 17-acre solar facility. You can’t miss the impressive 7,500 solar panels as you approach the campus. The $6.2 million installation went live this past October, and is expected to generate 5.6 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy. That’s the equivalent to power approximately 500 homes—or 20 percent of the university’s needs.

This project didn’t happen overnight and took a great deal of dedication and hard work from many. Bob
Morreale, Chief Financial and Innovation Officer at the university, was the one who started the solar power ball rolling when he attended a convention back in 2019.

“During my first year at the university I attended a NACUBO seminar—the National Association of College and University Business Officers—and this is where I came across a few solar array vendors and given the abundance of land on our campus, this seemed to make sense, so I brought some of the brochures back.”

Even though Niagara University already had solar panels on its hockey rink—Dwyer Arena—the idea of constructing a large array took about a year-and-a-half to get approvals both internally and externally, including their board of directors. Once that was completed, a Request For Proposals went out to a select group of solar vendors. Montante Solar was the selected winner and started a long journey to the array that is in place today.

“We just felt more comfortable going with Montante,” says Morreale. “They’re local. they had already done projects like this before, and they took us to three of their solar arrays. When we were done, they seemed like they were the best—we trusted them, and they did a great job.”

The agreement was structured so that the university would lease the land to Montante Solar. Montante, a full-service developer and installer of commercial and industrial solar energy systems, in turn would develop the project. Pivot Energy was also brought in to finance the project.

“It’s through a power purchase agreement,” explains Jessica Fuchs, Project Manager for Montante Solar. “Niagara University will buy the power from Pivot Energy. This is a really large project and it’s hard for a university or a company of our size to keep something this big on our books. That’s why we bring in financiers like Pivot Energy.”

“The university will receive $2.2 million over 25 years,” says Morreale. “The $2.2 million will come to us in the form of energy credits on our electric bill. At the end of the day, the power on this grid feeds the national grid, and it helps with putting in the green carbon effect. We will be doing our part.”

For the next 25 years, Montante Solar will continue to be involved with the project, as the operations and maintenance provider.

Fuchs was there from the start and says permitting for the array was pretty standard. “But what was a little bit unique here was that during the approval process, the town requested seven zoning variances for approval, all having to do with various setback requirements. Fortunately, we had great support from the university and the university supporters who came out and spoke with us in front of the zoning board. We were able to demonstrate what a boon to both the university and the community the project would be. We were given the seven variances requested.”

The 7,500 panels used on the Niagara University project were Boviet 540-watt bifacial modules, which collect sun from both the front and the back. The project also has Nextracker single-axis trackers, programmed to follow the sun over the course of the day, tilting the panels so that they’re picking up as much of the sun rays as possible.

From the university standpoint, even after going through all the boards and committees to get approval to use the land, there was also the student body to convince.

“There were several meetings with students, university communications and much collaboration involved,” says Morreale.

To the students and some faculty, a big, beautiful field of natural growth was going to be cleared for solar panels. But once everyone took a closer look, they discovered the field was filled with primarily invasive species. In the end, it was agreed that the few trees growing in the field would be replanted and that native pollinators would be planted under the solar panels and maintained.

The solar field would also be used as a learning tool for the university. “This year we are using it as a part of our social justice course, and as we move forward, we’re going to have sustainability courses, and physics courses where they will have a direct link to the panels themselves and the energy they’re generating on an hourly and daily basis,” says Morreale. “It’s also going to take our sciences to the next level. We’re going to use the array to have labs, students going right out to the array, and they can conduct their lab classes out there.”

The construction was on the main path to campus and took some teamwork between the university and Montante Solar. “We were really cognizant of construction schedules, particularly high-traffic periods of construction like the racking deliveries and the solar module deliveries, to work with the university,” says Fuchs. “Campus security was tremendously supportive in helping us understand best times of day, things like that, to keep the students safe.”

The most noisy parts of construction on the project were carried out during the summer, when student population was limited, adds Fuchs. “We did overlap to the beginning of the fall semester. Again, trying to just work our work hours so that the students wouldn’t be disrupted with their studies.”

	The Niagara University solar project agreement was structured so that the university would lease the land to Montante Solar. Montante, a full-service developer and installer of commercial and industrial solar energy systems, in turn developed the project. For the next 25 years, Montante will continue to be involved with the project, as the operations and maintenance provider. Pivot Energy was brought in to finance the project.

The 7,500 panels were Boviet 540-watt bifacial modules, which collect sun from both the front and the back. “It really augments the system’s efficiency and capitalizes on the space available,” says Fuchs. Because pollinators were going to be planted under the panels, white stone couldn’t be put down to make the site more reflective. But even so, Fuchs says there is reflection off grass and soil. “Then, of course, in these parts optimally you will reflect off snow,” she adds.

“We’re also using Nextracker, single-axis trackers. The trackers are programmed to follow the sun over the course of the day, tilting the panels so that they’re picking up as much of the sun rays as they can.” A total of 30 Chint Power Systems (CPS) inverters, 100 kw AC each, were used on the project.

Montante Solar tries to utilize local workforces, especially on projects as public as Niagara University. “The university is a great supporter of the local workforce, particular unions,” says Fuchs. “We wanted to make sure we honored our own values and stayed aligned with the university in that respect.”

Almost all the contractors, except those that installed the foundation, were local. Montante Solar self-performed a portion of the installation, but everyone else that they hired was from Niagara and Erie County.

The university was already proud of its environmental footprint prior to the installation.

“The unique thing about Niagara University is we’re 100 percent carbon-free with regard to electricity,” says Morreale. “All our power comes from the New York Power Authority, which is hydroelectric power, and we do about 1.5 million kilowatts a month, about 18 million kilowatts a year. That’s now down to almost 13 million, though, because we’ve invested in projects that provide significant cost-efficiencies such as LED lights, HVAC units, heat pumps, motors and other high efficiency equipment.”

Morreale has always been a Purple Eagle, graduating from Niagara University back in 1987. He says all three of his sons also played hockey at Dwyer Arena at Niagara University. He’s proud of the university’s environmental leadership, and to be able to leave a bit of his legacy behind. “It wasn’t just me. There were a lot of people involved. But to say that I had a hand in sustainability at Niagara University is a pretty proud moment.”

Fuchs says Montante Solar is also extremely proud of this project. “We’re local here to Niagara County and it’s our face on the project along with the university’s, and we want to make sure that the university is very pleased and proud of this, and can continue to show this off to all their students for years to come.”

She adds: “I’m just honored to really work with Niagara University on this. It’s one of the first collegiate applications of solar that I’ve done. As Bob said, I’m super proud to make them over 100 percent green electrical energy and the fact that we’re offsetting about 40,000 tons of CO2 just with this project alone, particularly in a region that historically had a lot of industrial applications, to really take this transformative step towards sustainability as a part of the university is a point of pride.”

The array stands as a powerful symbol of the university’s progress and commitment. It’s impossible to miss as you pass the campus—a clear reminder that the Purple Eagles are also green and dedicated to building a sustainable future for generations to come.

Q1 2025