Fond du Lac-based Holiday Ford recently installed several solar arrays on their properties, including the Holiday Ford Building and Collision Center, as well as an EV charging site.
Holiday Automotive partnered with Plymouth-based Arch Solar C&I to install the solar arrays. Holiday Automotive’s project has double the impact of a typical system. The Holiday Ford facility is outfitted with a 460-panel array, while the Holiday Collision and Glass Center boasts an additional 396 panels. Overall, the 469-kilowatt system is estimated to offset over 50% of the power usage of both buildings.
The solar portfolio uses bifacial panels tilted at a 23° angle. Bifacial solar panels produce energy from the sky-facing side and the underside, enhancing winter production when the sun reflects off the snow underneath the panels.
Holiday Automotive also installed the Ford Motor Company EV charging system at their Ford store parking lot. This charging station can charge up to eight electric vehicles at a time.
“As we add more electric vehicle charging stations at Holiday, we feel it’s important to offset a significant portion of the electricity that we use as a company. We’ve got a lot of rooftop space. As electric vehicle adoption continues to increase, it just makes sense to use some of that space for solar power,” said Michael Shannon Jr., president and CEO of Holiday Automotive.
News item from Arch Solar
Interesting, is that a 469kWp array or say 469kWh a day with an average of 4 sun hours a day? It sounds like this dealership might have gotten LONGI HiMO7 bifacial panels that take up about 25,000 square feet of roof space. The mention of 50% of energy needs met, is this straight grid tied or does the system have substantial energy storage on site? Depending on factors like: Local electric utility programs and the PPA this dealership signed with the utility, the utility rate programs and (if) there is a TOU period each day could allow a smart system to use “self consumption” software to save more energy during daily harvest and use the extra stored energy at night to get through the TOU period each 24 hour period. In the long term this dealership could reduce their monthly electric bill by 75%, maybe more during the summer months.
Then with a substantial BESS on site, this dealership could also serve as a grid services asset after hours, say between 10 PM and 6 AM each day. This final announcement of vehicle charging and “..a lot of rooftop space.”, there is a real prospect this system could become smarter, more efficient and become part of an overall VPP and under certain conditions and grid loading scenarios, could zero out a daily, monthly electric bill or actually give the dealership a slight positive revenue stream from grid services to the local electric utility.