Clean Energy & Renewable Energy Case Study

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Power from the Top with Solar Energy

Atlantic City Convention Center Gets the Largest Single Roof Solar Array

ClientS: Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority,
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities
Location: Atlantic City, NJ

Challenge/Business Need

The Atlantic City Convention Center opened in 1997 with 500,000 square feet of meeting space sprawled over 31 acres. With soaring energy costs and the desire to achieve its environmental goals, Atlantic City Convention Center and Visitors Authority (ACCVA) leadership used solar photovoltaic (PV) energy to meet the challenge.

The ACCVA organizational, fiscal and environmental objectives included:

• Providing a safe, healthy atmosphere for guests
  
• Conserving and reusing resources in order to reduce operating costs and decrease the Center’s impact on the environment
  
• Supporting the Convene Green Alliance with positive environmental practices through community outreach and education

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, who oversees New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program™, recognized the potential for long-term success of this large-scale endeavor. The new 2.37-megawatt solar array can produce up to 26 percent of the convention center’s annual electric consumption.

Conservation Service Group’s ROLE

CSG inspects completed installations for solar, biopower and wind projects in New Jersey. As a key member of the New Jersey Clean Energy Program’s team, CSG coordinated the technical and quality assurance aspects of the ACCVA project. This program has helped to fuel green jobs in the community.

ACCVA incurred no out-of-pocket expense and received generous praise from New Jersey’s former Governor Jon S. Corzine, who stated: “There could not be a better, more high-profile model for environmental leadership than the solar-powered Atlantic City Convention Center." The project was dedicated in March 2009.

Strategy & goals

The primary goal was to lower ACCVA’s energy costs while reducing carbon dioxide emissions into the environment. This was achieved through:

• Installation of a $17 million PV system that covers two-thirds of the convention center’s main roof (about 290,000 square feet) and includes 13,321 panels and four 500kw inverters
• 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with Pepco Energy Services for ACCVA. There is no out-of-pocket cost for ACCVA, which is able to purchase deeply discounted power produced by the system
• $245,000 rebate from New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program
  

Impact

This project has a significant, positive impact on the center’s budget and the environment, including:

• Immediate positive cash flow
• Savings of almost $4.4 million over 20 years
• Generation of 15 percent of the center’s electricity in first month of operation; projected to produce 26 percent of electricity required annually
• Prevention of 2,349 tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere per year
• Motivation to research the feasibility of a wind energy project (a single turbine could produce 16 percent of the center’s electricity)

At the time of installation, the system was the largest rooftop-mounted PV system in the U.S.

Read the press release.

CSG Contact

Janja Lupse, Project Director