Soltas Energy unveils 1,500 panel solar power system on roof

Concrete Block Insulating Systems had a $60,000-a-year electricity bill.

But it also had a 55,000-square-feet of roof space at its factory on Freight House Road that faces south and a partner, Soltas Energy, willing to help it turn that roof into a resource.

“It was a no-brainer,” Jeffrey S. Nickerson, president of the family-owned manufacturer, said Tuesday prior to the ceremonial ribbon cutting for the solar power plant that’s now installed on his roof. “We can reduce those costs and make ourselves more green at the same time.”

Soltas Energy, which is headquartered in New York City, installed 1,500 solar panels on the roof of Nickerson’s factory this winter. In total those panels are capable of generating 373 kilowatts of power, enough to supply 80 percent of the factory’s needs. That’s enough power for about 200 average suburban homes, said Richard A. Chase, a project manager for Soltas based at the company’s Lawrence offices.

Soltas owns and installed the panels and other equipment and sells the power back to Concrete Block Insulating Systems at a discount. Nickerson said Concrete Block Insulating Systems will save about $20,000 a year on its power bill between the discount and not having to pay power-company distribution charges on the power generated on its own roof. Concrete Block Insulating sells excess power to National Grid or buys power from National Grid when its needs exceed the rooftop panels' ability to supply.

Founded in 1972 by Nickerson’s uncle, David L. Nickerson, Concrete Block Insulating Systems grew by selling foam insulation for the inside of concrete-block walls after the 1970s energy crisis brought on insulation requirements. The company still makes those insulating blocks, Jeffrey Nickerson said, along with a host of other building products and insulated packaging for the biotechnology and seafood industries. Concrete Block Insulating Systems ships foam coolers to the scallop fishing fleet in New Bedford as one example.

The solar project cost $1.6 million, said D. Kirt Mayland, Soltas’ in-house counsel. Soltas received a 30-percent cash rebate from the federal government, a program that has since changed into a less-attractive tax credit. Soltas is also selling clean-energy credits from the project to utilities through a state program meant to encourage clean-energy development.

Soltas is a year-old company owned by international clean technology investment fund Barron Partners, Mayland said. Barron also owns a stake in solar-panel maker CNPV Solar Power, which is best known in Europe and Asia. The panels used in the project were made in China, Mayland said.

But the inverter, a device that takes the direct current from the panels and makes it into the alternating current used in the factory and in homes, was built by Selectra Renewables in Lawrence, where it has 130 employees. The brackets that hold the panels to the roof were also made by a Massachusetts company called PanelClaw in North Andover, Mayland said.

Soltas has several other projects around the state, including a much larger 2 megawatt ground-level installation in Orange and Athol. That project needs local approval. The company also has projects in Lawrence and Methuen, Mayland said.

“I think you will see a lot of solar projects in Massachusetts in the next few months,” he said.

Developers are worried that government incentives might go away. Also, the price of solar panels is falling. It was $3 or $4 per watt of generating capacity a few years ago. Now the panels cost $1 a watt.

“We are approaching grid parity,” Mayland said. “That’s the point where solar power costs the same as power generated from other sources.”

State Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said projects like the solar panels at Concrete Block Insulating Systems help make the country more energy independent.