ST. LOUIS — Three days after President Barack Obama set the nation on a course to use 80 percent clean energy by 2035, U.S. Congressman Russ Carnahan toured a St. Louis project that exemplifies the president’s plan — Missouri’s largest solar array at Walsh & Associates, Inc. Carnahan touted the installation as an example of how small businesses can lower energy costs and reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil while supporting local clean-energy jobs. The high-tech installation by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local One is allowing Walsh to achieve a significant return on its investment by cutting its annual energy bill from $36,000 to $1,500. The savings is delivered by 416 solar panels that top Walsh’s 88,000-square-foot warehouse at 1400 Macklind Ave.

“The project is a vision of tomorrow’s economy, here today,” said Carnahan. “It unites the remarkable talent we have in the St. Louis region: the visionary entrepreneur who wants to lower costs by optimizing energy efficiency with the designer, contractor and work force to deliver that vision.”

Joining IBEW Local One on the project were designer Straight up Solar of St. Louis and installation manager Bell Electrical Contractors. Federal stimulus funding and the 2008 passage of the Missouri Proposition C Clean Energy Initiative helped spur investment in the solar panels.

The array consists of 32 strings of panels with 13 panels on each string. Each string can produce

480 volts. The array covers 10,000 square feet and can produce 130,000 to 135,000 kilovolts annually.

“We anticipate that the solar installation will pay for itself in five years through a combination of Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) and credits from Ameren through net metering,” said Randall Lewis, Walsh director of operations. Net metering allows entities with renewable energy systems to earn money or credit from utility companies for the energy they produce.

“During fall and other times of the year when air conditioning is not required, the panels can produce more power than our building needs,” said Lewis. “That excess is returned to the grid for Ameren to use, giving us a credit. We estimate that over the anticipated 25-year life of the solar panels we could realize a return of investment of an additional $500,000 or even more if electrical rates increase. But to achieve that kind of return on our investment, we needed to make sure the panels were installed properly. That’s why we went with an IBEW Local One contractor.”

Each panel contains a Tigo Energy module that allows Walsh to remotely monitor the effectiveness of each panel. “It requires not only a thorough understanding of how inverters convert DC power into AC power, but requires skill to match the amplitude of the AC sine wave that Ameren has on the grid so the net metering can accurately measure power produced and used,” said Mike Meyers, an IBEW Local One electrician who worked on the project. “Without that precision, Walsh can’t optimize its investment in the panels.”

The Electrical Connection, a partnership of IBEW Local One and the St. Louis Chapter of the National Electrical Contractor’s Association (NECA), trains the workforce for renewable energy and other high tech electrical installations at the Electrical Industry Training Center in St. Louis. More information can found at www.stlejatc.org.

Members of the Electrical Connection provide safe and reliable electrical construction, maintenance, repair and replacement services across eastern Missouri. Learn more about the Electrical Connection at www.electricalconnection.org.