Agri-Industrial Plastics Reduces Operating Costs By 10% with SolarEdge PV
At a Glance
- Fairfield, Iowa
- 517 kW PV System
- SE100K X 4 SolarEdge Inverters with Synergy Technology
- 670 SolarEdge Dual-input Power Optimizers
- 212 kW/424 kWh Tesla Powerpack X 2
- Hanwa Solar modules [380W] X 1345
- Expected Year-1 Utility Savings: $55,000
- Payback Period: 6 years
- Projected Year-1 Energy Production: 633,995 kWh
The Challenge
Energy-Intensive Operations
Agri-Industrial Plastics (AIP) is one of the largest manufacturing companies in Iowa. Its extrusion blow molding machines consume a substantial amount of electricity and cannot easily be powered down. So they have to inevitably run 27 production lines, 24 hours a day, five days a week—incurring extremely high demand charges. As a result, the demand portion of their bill was high while the energy charges were relatively low. Based on Ideal Energy’s energy analysis, AIP knew that a solar+storage system was the way to go. However, they realized it was not feasible to offset 100% of their electric costs considering how energy intensive their operations were. Instead, AIP’s goal was to shave the most expensive part of its peak demand consistently throughout the year.
The Solution
To Offset
Energy Consumption with Solar + Storage
Ideal Energy, a leading SolarEdge installer in Iowa, determined that installing solar in tandem with energy storage would be the ideal solution for their client. With the goal of peak shaving, they proposed a fully integrated rooftop solution with the SolarEdge 100kW inverters with Synergy technology, SolarEdge dual- input power optimizers, and Tesla Powerpacks.
Since the state of Iowa had already adopted NEC 2017, they automatically chose SolarEdge -- one of the few systems in the market that has built-in capabilities to comply with the latest requirements in addition to its ability to generate more energy. The PV array was designed to offset 4-5% of AIP’s annual energy usage, with the combined PV + battery solution planned to reduce yearly peak load by an average of 6%.
Added peace of mind comes with safety compliance that surpasses NEC requirements –SolarEdge solutions are designed to rapidly reduce the voltage inside and outside of the array during a shutdown, and provide protection for Ideal Energy’s installation team and to first responders in emergency situations.
Amy Van Beek
Benefits
Leading By Example – A Commitment to Sustainability Opens the Door to New Talent
With this system, AIP anticipates an average utility savings of $55,000 per year. The project will earn a high rate of return of 16% and offset about 6% of peak loads. Further, the savings made on operating costs (~$55,000) allows AIP to redirect those financial resources towards their bottom-line, employees, and expanding production lines. Executives at AIP view the project as a strategic investment in the company’s future that will have an outsized impact beyond energy bills.
Installer Insight
Ideal Energy’s Major Takeaway
As a true lifetime energy partner; Ideal Energy helps their customers gain freedom from rising utility costs and empowers them to take control over their energy usage. They continue to push the envelope on solar- plus-energy storage as a winning solution for both business and customer.
For Ideal, SolarEdge’s advanced module-level monitoring capability is key to optimizing energy production for their customers. Further, the power optimizers helped avoid module mismatch losses and increased energy production by almost 3% in year 1. SolarEdge’s strength in exceeding NEC and additional grid requirements helps them know that their business can evolve with SolarEdge and gives them the confidence to standardize on SolarEdge solutions.
Environmental Savings
This PV system produces energy equivalent to:
