They say you don’t really know what you’ve got until it’s gone.
Mountain Line General Manager Maria Smith told members of the transit authority on Wednesday that she didn’t realize exactly how much money Mountain Line was saving through its rooftop solar array until the system went down in May.
“Budget-wise, our electricity has gone from a monthly bill of about $1,200-to-$5,000 in July and it’s close to $4,000 in August. So, until we get the solar power plant back up and running, we’re going to see some pretty-high bills here,” she said. “I knew it was saving us, but I didn’t realize it was this drastic.”
Of course, July and August are prime time for sun power.
Over the course of a year, she said, the system cuts the agency’s electricity costs by about 50%.
The roof of Mountain Line’s Pifer Terminal, in Westover, is home to 572 solar panels covering some 30,000 square feet.
The system was installed in 2012 thanks to a $1.1 million Federal Transit Administration grant. It’s expected to last until 2032 or so.
And while this temporary outage will be remedied by the arrival of a replacement part, Mountain Line has another solar eclipse on the horizon.
Thermal imaging shot from a drone indicated a significant amount of water is penetrating the building’s two-tier roof. About 18.5% of the 4,875 square-foot lower section is damaged. Roughly 5.5% of the 33,750 square-foot upper portion is compromised.
Smith said Mountain Line is likely looking at a project currently estimated at around $1.7 million to replace the lower section and recover the larger upper portion.
That number includes an estimated $113,000 to remove, store and reinstall the solar panels.
Mountain Line Project Manager Bob Pingley said the sooner the project can start, the better, explaining warmer temperatures are advantageous for the preferred roofing method using hot, liquid asphalt.
“Unfortunately, that’s complicated by the fact that the solar array has to come off and we don’t have a good handle on the specs for how that gets done,” Pingley said of the timeline. “Everybody in the trades knows roofing. That solar array up there is different. We’re working on the specs of how it comes off, how it’s stored and how it goes back on.”
Smith said $850,000 for the roof project will come by way of federal dollars passed through the state.
The new roof, she added, will come with a 30-year warranty.
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