Green Link Blog by Melink

Solar 101 Webinar: A Beginner's Guide

Written by Monica Niehaus | 6/22/21 1:49 PM

On Friday, April 16, 2021, a webinar hosted by Frost Brown Todd was presented as an opportunity for Ohio’s Public Utilities and Municipalities to learn more about clean energy and the benefits of transitioning to behind-the-meter solar.

During this webinar Steve Melink and Monica Niehaus of Melink Solar provided an introductory overview of commercial solar PV.  

The replay of the webinar can be found HERE. 

The webinar begins 45:20 into the original presentation. 

Overview:

Despite today’s high-efficiency pumps, motors, drive trains, aerators, and other methods to efficiently move or treat our water, treatment plants still consume over 30-40% of the energy budget of most Ohio local governments. The equipment operates 24/7 and is extremely energy intensive, which makes water treatment plants excellent candidates for solar projects.

Adding solar is supported by recent guidance from U.S. EPA, and bolstered by the new administration’s Clean Energy Plan. But how do you get started? More importantly, how do utility directors, superintendents, and operators, who are educated in biological, chemical or civil engineering fields, “talk solar?”

Answers to these questions are addressed in Frost Brown Todd’s Environmental Practice Group (EPG) webinar, where Melink Solar and Enerlogics helps to cover the basics of solar for commercial and municipality facilities. Finally, Cuyahoga County’s Director of Sustainability provides his “birds eye view” of the County’s solar project completed in 2020.