Powering recycling with solar energy

One of Connecticut’s leading waste disposal, recycling, and dumpster rental businesses and its team of 230 dedicated professionals operate a fleet of 200 vehicles from depots, waste processing centers, and transfer stations in Plainville, New London, Berlin and Deep River, CT. The highly competitive commercial and residential services are used by hundreds of  businesses, as well as Federal and local governments, in towns and cities throughout Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Embracing waste as a resource

Waste removal and recycling businesses play an essential role in ongoing efforts by citizens and governments to collect and process waste in a cost-effective way that both protects the environment and treats waste as a valuable resource. The customer wished to explore low cost, energy efficient, environmentally-friendly technologies that would guarantee its power supply and help to keep its prices low for customers.

Demonstrating market-leading expertise

The customer was aware of Centrica Business Solutions’ track record in successfully installing solar power systems for dozens of customers in multiple locations within the tri-state area.

Centrica Business Solutions designed and installed a 295 kW solar rooftop system, featuring 390-watt photovoltaic panels on the roof of the office building and transfer station at the customer’s location in Berlin, CT. The combined system produces over 321 MWh a year, which offsets the total load at this facility. The system went live in June 2019, just in time to capture the extended summer days.

The solar system qualified for support from Connecticut’s Zero Emission Renewable Energy Credit – or ZREC – Program, through which commercial solar energy system owners are paid for up to 15 years for the electricity that their systems generate.

The results

The new solar power system will deliver 100% of the business's annual energy requirements for this facility and provide a positive return on investment within just four years.

Centrica Business Solutions’ market-leading 10-year workmanship warranties and production guarantees provide valuable peace of mind for executives. The performance of the solar power system is guaranteed for the first 10 years, and the customer is reimbursed if power generation falls below agreed levels. If it does, Centrica Business Solutions carries out all necessary work to ensure the system meets or exceeds expected performance.

“Centrica Business Solutions clearly demonstrated real expertise and experience in every aspect of a solar power project – from the design, engineering, installation and financing standpoints – so we felt we were in very safe hands, that they would get the job done quickly, efficiently and to a very high standard.

“Having a 10-year workmanship warranty is very reassuring, when many suppliers of solar power systems only offer basic, one-year warranties. Then when you add in the 10-year production guarantee, it meant that contracting with Centrica Business Solutions was a very easy, low risk decision to make.”