Norfolk solar company hits $1M in installations
Site tops 1K panels to low-income areas, studying expansion
A Norfolk solar energy company that has brought more than 1,000 panels to churches and businesses in low-income areas throughout Hampton Roads has hit a major goal: more than $1 million worth of installations. And its founders are already eyeing ways to get more green energy in communities where it’s rarely seen.
The company, Norfolk Solar, is close to a deal that would nearly double the fund’s total installation value and, for the first time, will start installing solar panels at residences, which was the program’s initial goal before being stymied by government regulations.
“To me, that’s just huge,” said Ruth McElroy Amundsen, a NASA engineer who co-founded the for-profit company. “It opens up the floodgates for people to do this.”
Norfolk Solar uses power purchase agreements to install solar panels at no upfront cost to property owners and makes its money by selling the power generated by the panels back to the consumers and through tax credits. The businesses and organizations they work with are in distressed communities.
The latest installation at Wesley Union A.M.E. Zion Church in Norfolk’s Hunter’s Square neighborhood is the fund’s 8th installation. It’s the first installation to be groundmounted rather than on the roof of a building. The Rev. Brandon Praileau said he is proud to help promote renewable energy use in his community.
“It is our prayer that through this endeavor, not only will many come to learn more about solar energy and its long-term financial benefits, but they will come to appreciate and join the movement towards environmental stewardship,” he said in a statement.
In addition to the church, the solar company has worked with the Virginia Beach-based Convert Solar to also install roughly
1,350 panels at Norva Plastics, Norfolk Machine and Welding, CozyPure Organic Mattress Factory, First Baptist Berkley and Southside Girls and Boys Club in Norfolk; JD Miles Roofing in Chesapeake; and Ironclad Distillery in Newport News.
The hundreds of panels installed produce a total of about 665-megawatt hours of energy each year, which is equal to roughly avoiding 470 metric tons of carbon dioxide because solar energy doesn’t burn fossil fuels or other products. That’s the same as taking about 100 cars off the road for a year.
Amundsen said when she started the Norfolk Solar Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund two years ago, she was hoping to inspire others to create similar efforts. And what she’s seen has been beyond anything she imagined initially. Several people reach out each week to get more details on how the fund operates and she and co-founder of the company Alden Cleanthes have helped another person set up a similar fund that will ultimately pour another $750,000 into such projects.
The hardest part so far, Cleanthes said, hasn’t been the fundraising, but instead convincing businesses that the deal isn’t too good to be true.
But they are already eyeing what may be possible in the future. Amundsen said she wants to see solar on every single building throughout Hampton Roads.
“I still have bigger dreams,” she said.