The Honolulu Program of Waste Energy Recovery, or H-POWER, in Kapolei, West Oahu generates up to 90 megawatts of energy for Hawaiian Electric Company – enough to meet nearly eight percent of Oahu’s energy needs. The facility processes 700,000 tons of waste annually, which is combusted to generate steam, converted into electricity and sold to Hawaiian Electric for use by Oahu’s residents and businesses.
The city added solar photovoltaics (PV) to six existing rooftops at the City and County of Honolulu’s Waste-to-Energy Recovery facility operated by Covanta Honolulu Resource Recovery Venture (H-POWER). However, there wasn’t sufficient space to meet their full commitment of solar energy production at the facility, so a new metal “solar building” was constructed on the adjacent lot, which would house and provide the balance of solar power requirements.
Elevating the PV panels on rooftops would reduce shadowing from adjacent properties and maximize power generation, and was, therefore, more favorable to achieve reliable and consistent system performance. In total, the project involved installing a 3-megawatt system – one of the largest rooftop solar projects in the state of Hawaii – consuming 290,181-sf of rooftop space for the PV system. The system would offset some of H-POWER’s in-house demand of 7 megawatts to run the plant.
A Varco Pruden steel building was selected for the structure of the “solar building” and for the facility’s rooftops. Taylor Metal Products, PBR Exposed-Fastened, Trapezoidal Rib, Metal Roofing was chosen to replace the existing 30+ year-old metal roof panels for the six buildings at the H-POWER plant facility.
The S-5-S Mini clamp was selected as the preferred attachment method to secure solar modules to the roof of the new “solar building” to allow a penetration-free attachment for the solar racking system.
VersaGard™ was selected to secure PV racking to the newly replaced trapezoidal exposed-fastened “PBR” (purlin bearing rib) metal roofs at the Covanta Honolulu plant facility, to meet the service life expectancies for both the roof and the solar PV system.
VersaGard™ functions as an L-Foot and mounting base in one component for PV rail mounting. The bracket is specifically designed with a factory-applied, butyl sealant offering a long-term service life, free from UV degradation, drying and cracking.
Used with side-bolted rail systems, VersaGard can be installed either parallel or perpendicular to slope for portrait or landscape module orientation.
Wire management holes are also provided. The circular holes in the vertical part of the bracket support up to 1” (25 mm) conduit.
The S-5-S Mini (“S” stands for snap-lock) is a non-penetrating, standing seam metal roof (SSMR) clamp. The S is designed for most popular vertical snap-together profiles -- typically with vertical dimensions of 1.5” (38 mm) and 1.75” (44 mm).
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