Greener DELIVERIES

Transportation and logistics company FedEx recently broadened its involvement with renewable energy, with two rooftop solar projects in Connecticut, its first projects in the state, working with solar power developer, Verogy.

By Diane Mettler

It can seem like everywhere you look these days, you see a solar rooftop solar facility being installed. There’s good reason. It’s estimated that there is 160+ gigawatts of solar rooftop capacity in the U.S.—enough to power 12 million homes. That’s only a fraction of the potential, with only an estimated 3.5 percent of commercial buildings in the U.S. taking advantage of rooftop solar facilities.

Verogy, a Connecticut-based company, is tapping into this capacity. Two of its most recent installations went up on the roofs of FedEx buildings in Stratford (866 kW) and Middletown (2,075 kW), Connecticut. They are FedEx’s first solar projects in the state and are designed to reduce the facilities’ carbon footprint while providing reliable clean, zero-emission energy.

The company has been involved in solar projects elsewhere, In 2022, FedEx installed what was then one of the nation’s capital’s largest solar arrays on the roof of its Express Eckington Place facility. The 915 kW array in Washington, DC was created in collaboration with Sol Systems and provides power to the community and electricity credits to a local charitable organization. FedEx, which is a global logistics company, also has a number of other solar projects on facilities in the U.S., and overseas.

With the Connecticut projects, the FedEx rooftops were ideal for solar installations in that they were large and are not shaded. In addition, the large parking lots provided ample space for staging during construction. The projects took two to three years from development to completion. The process, says Jenna Behan, Verogy’s
Head of Marketing and Public Relations, included everything from permitting to how to stage the equipment to completion.

“There is often a lot of coordination with local officials,” she said. “But since both these buildings were privately owned and they had large parking areas for staging building materials, it was a fairly smooth process.”

Preparing for projects is a crucial piece of an installation. “Preparation was typical in terms of understanding existing property operations so that project mobilization can occur with low impact,” says Verogy Project Manager Luke Galvin, of the FedEx projects. “There was a lot of communication, on-site visits, identifying ground space needs and receiving a clear understanding of regular operations and how the solar build activity nestled into daily operations.”

Galvin breaks the basic preparation into two pieces. First was the rooftop prep, which included walking, identifying the proposed solar area, and checking everything before installation and setting a target date.

The next step was to plan and coordinate the staging areas with the properties ahead of time, ensuring they wouldn’t affect daily operations or transportation.
Once the planning was complete, construction began. Galvin says there are two general activities that happen simultaneously—electrical and racking.

The racking for Stratford was done one section at a time. “Once the racking is laid out, then any necessary mechanical attachments were set and installed, then modules and string wire and wire management were completed. This project included 1,590 Phono Mono 545-watt modules and 11 Chint Power Systems inverters.”

For  Middletown, Galvin says racking installation was executed with additional crews working from opposite ends of the building, section by section.

There were fifteen individual sections only connected by the wiring. And a heavier busway system was also installed for wire management. Once the racking was laid out, any necessary mechanical attachments were set and installed.

This rooftop included 3,800 Phono Mono 545-watt modules and 25 Chint Power Systems inverters.

Behan says the Photo Mono modules are fairly standard for their projects. “We like to use them. They’re a Tier One piece of equipment, so they’re the highest quality.”

Verogy also used two different racking systems. For the Stratford project they chose PanelClaw RF 10 and for the Middleton project used the Ironridge XR100 and S5! Clamps

“The only coordination with the municipality was for inspections,” says Galvin. “The build team coordinated intermittent building and electrical visits throughout so the inspectors can mark and be knowledgeable on the process—installations meeting code requirements etc. It was critical that our communication with the municipality fosters an engaged and cooperative relationship.”

The project went very smoothly. If there was a challenge, it was to get the planning and execution in place to have the least operational impact. “Through the regular and consistent communications with the FedEx team, the builds at each location were executed with minimal impact and maximum transparency,” says Galvin.

	Construction of the Connecticut solar projects went very smoothly, says Verogy. If there was a challenge, it was to get the planning and execution in place to have the least operational impact. But through the regular and consistent communications of Verogy with the FedEx team, the builds at each location were executed with minimal impact and maximum transparency.

Both Behan and Galvin agree that the most important factor to a successful rooftop install is the team. The coordination between the suppliers and contractor with the building owner and/or occupant is critical says Galvin.

“You need seamless collaboration between all parties to coordinate that—deliveries, having the lifts there, getting everything up on the roof and then getting energized,” says Behan.

Galvin adds, “When we work together efficiently with suppliers, projects are completed on time, with-
in buget, and with optimal energy performance, maximizing long-term benefits for the property owner.”

To complete this project in a timely manner meant clear communication between Verogy’s on-site Construction Site Supervisors, (Tyler Goodall for Stratford and Mike Reola for Middletown). The two men set and led daily communications and coordination with the FedEx operations personnel.

“The importance of the site supervisors’ efforts working with the building and our on-site build teams is what sets the expectations, and creates the cadence at which the build execution proceeds,” says Galvin.

“They really were the key to the success of each build.”

Due to tremendous teamwork, Verogy finished the solar facility with no negative impacts to FedEx operations.

FedEx and Verogy chose to use a Power Purchase Agreement. Verogy will maintain ownership and FedEx will purchase the power at a discounted fixed rate. Behan says that FedEx will probably, however, use all the energy produced.

There were also state-level incentives with the FedEx project. “It’s the ZREC program and the LREC program—the Zero Emission Renewable Energy Credit (ZREC) and Low Emission Renewable Energy Credit (LREC) programs,” says Behan. “They are Connecticut programs administered by the utilities. They have now been phased out by the NRES program—the Non-Residential Renewable Energy Solutions (NRES) Program.

With the Connecticut projects, the FedEx rooftops were ideal for solar installations in that they were large and are not shaded. In addition, large parking lots provided ample space for staging during construction.

“We like the new program,” adds Behan. “It has front of the meter and behind the meter options, which is great. We’ve had some pretty good success in the NRES program. We’re actually coming to the end of that now. I think we’re in the fourth year out of six, so we’re coming to the end of it and I’m not sure what’s on the horizon, so we’ll see what the state has in store next.”

Verogy, because it owns the install, will be handling the maintenance. Behan says that some people get worried about snow, but it’s not a huge issue. “It just slides off.” The panels that were chosen, she says, are durable and meant to be out there in the elements.

Verogy and FedEx are looking at the possibility of more projects outside the Connecticut area. Verogy is active in 21 states and these two installations are just the first two to be completed for FedEx, says Behan. “Many more, hopefully, to come down the pipe.”

To handle these and many other projects, Verogy has been growing substantially over the last seven years. The company was founded in 2017 by six individuals and is currently 48 employees strong. Behan says Verogy is excited about the future. It is focusing on developing, constructing, and owning commercial, industrial, and small utility-scale projects. To date, they have already developed, financed, and constructed hundreds of solar projects across the U.S. And some of the more unique projects they are currently working on are solar facilities on capped landfills.

“We really pride ourselves on one point of contact and seeing a project all the way through from that initial stage to final completion,” says Behan. “That would be one tier that we pride ourselves on and then the other would be just following through on expectations.”
There are situations in the solar power industry of companies making an offer, making a proposal and then not being able to do it, she added. “They fluff the numbers too much and are not able to follow through and actually build the project. So, we really pride ourselves on our approach—maybe we don’t win every single project if their numbers are accurate, but we want to be able to build every project that we win.”

These two FedEx rooftops have been a win for both Verogy and FedEx, which has a goal to be carbon neutral by 2040.  Combined, the two solar rooftops are expected to generate over 3,468,700 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy annually, which is enough to power 321 homes for a year. And the clean energy generated will offset approximately 2,423 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to the emissions produced by an average passenger vehicle driven nearly 6.2 million miles a year.
That’s definitely a green delivery.