PROJECT SUMMARY
Dartmouth-Hitchcock is a nonprofit academic health system serving communities in northern New England. Dartmouth-Hitchcock provides access to more than 1,000 primary care doctors and specialists in almost every area of medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. In 2016, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center was named one of “100 Great Hospitals in America” by Becker’s Hospital Review.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) partnered with Norwich Solar of White River Junction, Vermont, to install a 134-kilowatt DC, net-metered solar photovoltaic (PV) System on the roof of its Heater Road complex at 18 Old Etna Road in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
The PV system is expected to produce approximately 157,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity for the medical facility in 2018. The project has a total capacity of 100 kW-AC (134.19 kW-DC) of solar electric power. The PV system is designed to generate approximately 157,000 kWh in the first year.
The Heater Road system includes 378, 355-watt solar modules and optimized DC to AC power inverters to maximize module efficiency on a complex roof structure with HVAC, lab venting, and a pager antennae system, which would dramatically limit system productivity using traditional string inverter technology.
NORWICH SOLAR SCOPE
Norwich Solar serves as both the prime Engineering, Procurement, and Construction contractor and as the team for system assembly and installation as well as facilitating a Power Purchase Agreement. Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) are structured so the third-party system owner will have all financial and operational responsibility for the system and off-takers have responsibility only for paying for such power as is produced.
We installed the rooftop system quickly and efficiently with a crane early on a weekend morning to avoid disrupting the operation of the medical facility or inconveniencing the large volume of clients this outpatient center serves during the week.
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS & OFFSETS
In addition to monthly savings on power costs, estimated CO2 equivalent avoided over 25-years of system operation is:
3,375,954 of CO2, which is equivalent to 39,094 Trees Planted Or 6,977,880 Miles not driven.
