RJ Noble

The Problem:

With over 70 years of experience, The RJ Noble Company is Southern California's leading asphalt supply, transportation, and construction company. In addition to its other business operations, the Company owns and operates asphalt & crushing facilities in the City of Orange, that are adjacent to Transportation and Storage facilities. Southern California Edison (SCE) supplies the electricity required to operate the asphalt and crushing facilities with approximately 4,000,000 kWh of energy.  The cost of energy in California has soured in recent years. These changes are primarily due to policy changes and investments in the electrical grid to increase electrical energy availability and responsiveness and reduce the risk of fires. As a result of the high amount of energy consumed, these cost increases have had a significant impact on the operational costs of the asphalt and crushing facilities.  Therefore, the Company decided to investigate solar energy as a potential solution to offset their costs.  

Braden Porter reached out to his personal friend Dan McIntyre the President / Owner of TENCO SOLAR and put him in touch with The RJ Noble Company team.  Both TENCO and The RJ Noble Company held a joint planning session in Q4-2022 and brainstormed ideas on how to integrate solar energy into their business to reduce operating costs.  There were several challenges to overcome, not the least of which was that there was no room at the asphalt and crushing facilities to house the solar system. However, there was room at the Company's nearby Storage Facility on the rooftops of the structures for a large system. However, the distance between the facilities was 1,560 ft, and easements between the two sites made a direct interconnection less than ideal.  In addition, the storage structures had flat metal roofs, and a key requirement was that no holes/penetrations could be made into the roofs of the storage facilities. Compounding these challenges was the looming end of Net Energy Metering 2.0 in California, so finding a solution quickly was essential to ensuring maximum utility savings.

The Solution:

TENCO SOLAR took the scope as defined above and set out to find a solution.  In addition to Dan McIntyre, President the team included:

• Company Founder and CTO: Matt Mitera
• COO/ Owner: Luis Diazmoreno
• Director of Project Management: Vanessa Lorrah
• Project Manager: Ken Yan
• Operations Manager
• Hector Cardenas

First, to solve the distance problem, we requested a new 2400 Amp 480V 3Phase Electrical Service at the Storage Facility Site to accept the energy from the proposed 1.1MW solar system. This will allow solar energy to be transferred (virtually) by the utility to the asphalt and crushing facility under SCE’s Virtual Net Energy Metering (VNEM) Program.  

Second, the team sought a solution to affix the panels to the metal roofs without any roof penetrations. While attending the RE+ trade show, the team learned of a novel solution by Solar Stack that eliminated the need to place any holes or penetrations to affix the panels to metal roofs. Rather than using traditional fasteners, the Solar Stack System employs an industrial strength adhesive to chemically weld the mounting hardware to rooftops.  The team conducted a thorough investigation of the Solar Stack adhesive solution, engineering documents, and building codes.  Ultimately, the team determined the solution would work on the metal roofs and eliminate the need for holes or penetrations.

The Execution:

TENCO SOLAR swiftly executed the project, completing the necessary engineering work and securing the VNEM application to lock in NEM 2.0 benefits. We used ZNShine 550W modules, accompanied by Solar Edge Inverters with P1101 Optimizers to ensure reduced costs for operations and Maintenance and ensure maximum output. Additionally, RJ Noble received a 10% Investment Tax Credit Adder for being in an energy community, further improving the project's financial viability. The successful implementation ensured RJ Noble achieved greater-than-expected cost savings, effectively mitigating the impact of rising energy prices.

Sustainability:

The project will yield the following benefits from an environmental standpoint:

Over the next 20 years, according to the EPA’s greenhouse Gas Equivalencies calculator, the system will have the impact of reducing: 27,108.97 lbs of CO2, 61,622,315.04 Miles driven by Cars, 406,548.12 Trees planted.

‍