Installation Pictures From The Sky: MSSI Installation in Marbury, Maryland

Back in early 2016 MSSI installed this 19.5 kW system in Charles County. This Customer wished to max out his rooftop and generate as much energy as possible, so we used both his barn’s and home’s roof.

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Since installation in January, this system has produced a total of 14,230 kWh and is slated to cover his usage by 109% this year.

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Additionally, since system turn-on in January, this family has saved 21,617 lbs of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, equivalent to 555 trees having been planted.

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Landscaping For Solar

MSSI Logo PV Solar-Friendly Small Trees and Large Shrubs


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Picture taken from a Solar PV Array MSSI installed in Silver Spring, Maryland.


You have solar panels and you love them. You’re happy with what the sun is doing for you, but you also want a little bit of shade. We understand, so in honor of amateur horticulturalists everywhere we thought it’d be helpful to put together a starter list of small trees/large shrubs that can provide a little bit of PV-friendly shade in your landscape.

In lieu of using front porch roof structures, pergolas, arbors, awnings or other horizontal measures to shade the home, use native, slow to medium growth deciduous trees/large shrubs for the same purpose. Use species you might already be familiar with like Dogwood and Eastern Redbud. They are deciduous and by dropping their leaves in the winter, they will still let the sun in to warm the home during the winter months. Below are some you may already know and some that may be all new to you.

Rain Garden

Small Trees:

1. Eastern Redbud, Cercis canadensis

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Redbud is a 15-30 ft. tree, it’s pink to purple and sometimes white flowers create a showy spring flower display. Vase shaped with distinctive heart-shaped leaves, turning golden in the autumn, and tolerates full sun.

2. Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida

Cornus florida

Flowering dogwood is a 20-40 ft., single- or multi-trunked tree with a lovely spreading crown graced with white and sometimes pink flowers for a long bloom period during the spring. Gorgeous scarlet foliage in the autumn and produces small red berries that birds prize. Does best in part shade, but will tolerate full sun. Is also the larval host for the Spring Azure butterfly.

3. Serviceberry, Amelanchier canadensis

Serviceberry

Serviceberry is a small, understory tree or large, multi-trunked shrub with many upright branches that grows 6-20 ft. high. Its crown is delicate and open. Multitude of white blossoms followed by a small, crimson-colored, apple-like fruit that wild birds adore. Fall foliage is orangey-red. Tolerates all light requirements.

4. White Fringe Tree, Chionanthus virginicus

Fringetree

White Fringe Tree is a 15-30 ft., deciduous tree or shrub that displays clusters of fragrant, white blossoms during the spring. After flowering, dark blue, clusters of fruits are produced. One of the last to bloom and leaf out in the spring, this will add a last burst of color to the spring show. Prefers part sun. Larval host for the Rustic Sphinx.

5. Witch Hazel, Hamamelis virginiana

Witch Hazel

Erupting into golden blooms a full month before the oft-planted non-native Forsythia, Witch Hazel is a small tree that is often multi-trunked and usually growing 10-15 ft. tall. The large, crooked, spreading branches form an irregular, open crown. Its flowers are not only yellow, but deliciously-scented. During the summer months, its foliage is light green, but then turns a brilliant gold in autumn. Bark is smooth and gray and full sun brings out the best in this tree.


Large Shrubs:

1. ‘Mt. Airy,’ Fothergilla, Fothergilla major

Fothergilla Major

Large Fothergilla is a 6-12 ft., deciduous shrub with lovely crooked, multiple stems. Gorgeous blue-green foliage is colorful in autumn. The fragrant flower, appearing as a mass of stamens, is white, looks like a fuzzy bottle brush and appears after the leaves have come out. Full sun is best for this beauty.

2. Spicebush, Lindera benzoin

Lindera Benzoin
Because of it early display of yellow flowers, Spicebush is often referred to as the “Forsythia of the wilds.” It is a single- or multi-trunked shrub, 6-12 ft. tall, with glossy leaves and graceful, slender, light green branches. Much like the aforementioned forsythia, the buds traverse across each twig and are followed by glossy red fruit. Both the fruit and foliage are aromatic. Leaves turn a colorful golden-yellow in fall. Tolerates all sun intensities and is the larval host for three butterflies: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail and Promethea Silkmoth.
3. Elderberry, Sambucas canadensis

Sambucas canadensis

Black Elderberry is an open and graceful shrub with both woody and herbaceous branches, growing up to 12 ft. tall. Flowers are disk-shaped, white, in broad, flat, conspicuous clusters up to 10 inches or more in diameter, appearing from May to July. Fruit is dark-purple, berrylike, and edible. Birds love them.

4. Arrowwood Viburnum, Viburnum dentatum

Viburnum dentatum

Arrowwood Viburnum is a 6-8 ft. shrub with multiple stems in a loose, rounded habit. White, flat-topped flower clusters are followed by dark blue berries. Gorgeous yellow to wine-red foliage in the autumn. Tolerates all intensities of sun and is the larval host for the Spring Azure Butterfly.


A Few Last Thoughts
A few notes: on the west side, use vertical shading to stop the low-angle, late-afternoon sun from reaching walls and windows. This can take the form of trellises and vines on the wall, screen walls, shrub-like plants and trees. As far as height of trees, stick with a tree or shrub that isn’t going to get higher, or much higher, than the south-facing roof line. Shade from the west will shorten the productivity your PV modules each day, whereas shade from the south dramatically reduces production all day long.

Installation Pictures From The Sky: MSSI Installation in Arbutus, Maryland

MSSI Logo Petite, Yet Mighty PV Solar Power Array in Arbutus, Maryland!

 

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The owners of this historical home in Arbutus, Maryland wanted to go solar. While the hips in their roof presented some challenges, we were able to design and install a 3.68 kW system for them. 

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Installed in July 2011, this PV solar system has produced a whopping 15.65 MW of electricity, has saved 24,235 lbs from entering the atmosphere, an equivalent of having planted 610 trees!

Solar Power Is A Friend to the Chesapeake Bay

MSSI Logo Solar Power is a Friend to the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

As you may be aware, the Chesapeake Bay was once an abundant waterway, home to a teeming population of blue crabs, oysters, rockfish and impressive forests of sea grass. Because Maryland borders the Chesapeake Bay we are on intimate terms with the world’s largest estuary and have known for many decades that our beloved bay is in trouble. 

According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, sea grass coverage continues to hover at around 20% of historical levels, while blue crab populations have dwindled to 50% of their population levels recorded during the 1980’s. Rockfish continue to struggle to regain a foothold in the Bay and the oyster population is now 98% below historical numbers. In fact, it would take the Bay’s current population over a year to filter the Bays’ waters; at prior population levels it would have taken only a few days! Due to a combination of nitrogen pollution, habitat loss and over fishing, the health of the Bay is in crisis. At a loss of $4 billion during the last 30 years for both water men and the Chesapeake Bay seafood industry, it is indeed a precarious situation for the world’s largest estuary.

Good News Surfaces for the Bay

According to a Bay health scorecard recently released by the University of Maryland, there seems to be a turnaround underway. The blue crab population has gone up, the oyster harvests have increased, amounts of dissolved oxygen in the Bay went up and aquatic grasses have increased by 50% from 2011 to 2015. While there has not been meaningful movement made by either Virginia or Maryland on decreasing the amount of nitrogen pollution generated by poultry farms on the Eastern Shore (in fact, it is has gotten worse), the overall amount of nitrogen has decreased and with it the choking blooms of algae associated. Why?

Connection to Renewable Energy

Well, believe it or not there is a connection between the health of the Chesapeake Bay and solar power! More precisely, energy that displaces coal-fired electricity and the the high levels of air pollution associated with it. In fact, about a ¼ of the nitrogen pollution entering the Bay is from the air! Beginning with the 2006 Maryland Healthy Air Act and then the 2009 Obama Administration regulations imposed on coal-fired power plants we have seen a major reduction in air born nitrogen polluting the Bay. We can’t help but think that the 349 MW of solar energy currently installed in Maryland may have also had a part to play in such good news! After all, we rank #13 in the United States in installed solar capacity! Because of the cleaner energy choices we make, our Chesapeake’s water becomes cleaner and clearer too!

Blue Crab

Installation Pictures From The Sky: MSSI Installation in Phoenix, Maryland

Check out this gorgeous 9 kW system that we designed for a family back in 2012.

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When reviewing us this Customer said that it had been “a pleasure” working with Colette and the MSSI team and that our “friendly” and “knowledgeable,” low-pressure sales approach was appreciated. Since installation in 2012, this satisfied Customer has saved 62,492 lbs of carbon dioxide, equally 1,604 trees having been planted!

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Let’s hear it for solar!

 

PACE Funding Now Available in Maryland for Commercial Solar Projects!

MSSI Logo        PACE Funding Now Available in      Maryland for Commercial Solar Projects!

Picture taken from a Solar PV Array MSSI installed in Chestertown, Maryland.

PACE Funding is Now Available for Some Counties in Maryland

We are pleased to announce the emergence of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) funding for Commercial Solar Projects here in Maryland. Currently only available in Montgomery, Howard, Anne Arundel and Queen Anne’s Counties, PACE-funding opportunities are expected to spread into neighboring counties within the next few years here in Maryland.

Commercial Solar

What Is PACE?

As stated above, PACE stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy, and is a policy that gives business owners an affordable way to mitigate the high upfront costs associated with larger-scale commercial clean energy projects by attaching the amortization of a loan to your yearly property tax payments. Huh?

Here’s the nuts and bolts: in partnership with the State of Maryland, Greenworks Lending provides loans to commercial businesses wishing to invest in clean energy and/or efficiency upgrades. The loan is then paid back through your property taxes over the course of 20 years. The loan is added as a lien to your property taxes for the life of the loan. It does not raise your property taxes by assessing the added value of the solar, but simply adds the loan payments to your yearly property taxes.

In order to apply for PACE funding the borrower in question must be the private owner (i.e. not the government) of the property. The borrower cannot have gone through bankruptcy. The loan amount can be up to 20-30% of assessed value of the building and land of the property.

What’s So Great About PACE?

PACE makes is super-easy to take out a loan, and it gives businesses first-year cash flow. How?

In the first place, PACE allows businesses to lower their overhead immediately by either eliminating or significantly reducing their utility bills. Additionally, with PACE the business owner is able to utilize the Federal 30% Tax Credit, any local incentives, Net Metering, the Maryland Energy Administration Grant, MACRS and the production of SRECs.

Through PACE, Greenworks Lending offers “sculpted ammortization” which means that the bulk of your loan will be paid back within the first 6 years of the array having been installed. For instance, if a borrower takes out $100,000 in PACE financing, during the first year, the borrower would receive $30,000 back from the Federal government on top of being able to depreciate 50% using MACRS. After taxes the borrower will get back an additional $50,000 for having invested in solar. During the first year, the business will pay back a larger portion of their loan. Because of the incentives coming back to the borrower within the first 5-years, the loan payments at the beginning are higher and allow the borrower to virtually pay back the bulk of the loan within the first 6-years. This makes the remaining payments on the loan super-affordable. Pretty awesome!

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Picture taken from a Solar PV Array MSSI installed in Randallstown, Maryland.

 

MSSI is a Registered PACE Contractor

Here at MSSI we’re proud to be a registered PACE Contractor for the State Of Maryland. We can help you look at solar for your business and whether PACE will work for you. PACE really creates an affordable alternative to leasing and power purchase agreements and allow businesses to leverage solar power as an investment and create tax-free value for their properties. Really, its a win-win.