Frith Farm 23.7 kW PV system

Frith Farm is a 14-acre property situated in Scarborough, ME. This year marks its ninth season of operation. The farm offers organic vegetables, pasture-raised eggs, chicken, pork, and turkey. They are committed to engaging with their local community in a sustainable and environmentally conscious way.

This season, working with local installer Maine Solar Solutions and Greentech Renewables, Frith Farm set a goal to offset their current annual output of 28,896 kWh/year by an estimated 97%. In its first year, this would add up to an estimated offset of 48,000 lbs of emissions from the atmosphere each year. That is equivalent to the work of 1,200 new trees per year.

In order to meet this goal, Maine Solar Solutions collaborated with Frith Farm to design a 23.7kW solar PV system made up of 60 Q-Cell 395 solar panels accompanied by 60 SolarEdge P505 optimizers. The entire system was mounted to the roof of a barn on the larger farm property. The barn is connected to a pre-existing utility meter, which will feed the electricity generated by the solar array directly into all of the farm's operations. Additionally, Maine Solar Solutions installed two SolarEdge SE10000H-US inverters to the exterior of the barn structure, connected to the utility meter. 

The metal roof of the barn was ideal for the system, oriented at 125 degrees with no shading and a roof pitch of 35 degrees. The PV system was mounted to this roof with an aluminum roof mount rack and gusseted attachment points. The PV array also includes a data collection system to provide 24-hour system monitoring.

Overall, Maine Solar Solutions did a fantastic job with this PV system, and Frith Farm managed to offset their electrical use by 97% from their initial consumption of 28,896 kW/year, doing their part to reduce their property carbon emissions in the process.