FitzGerald Design-Build Team Develops Turnkey Solution for Solar Panel Retrofits

FitzGerald has completed several projects as part of a design-build team to retrofit existing commercial structures with photo-voltaic arrays. In collaboration with building owners, engineers, contractors and financing entities, the team is able to provide a system for consistent, low-cost energy to supplement the traditional fossil fuel-based power grid to buildings of a scale previous thought unsuitable for such a system.
To date, FitzGerald’s team has completed three projects in the Chicagoland area, with several more progressing through early development. Free-standing commercial applications have been the focus thus far, ranging from a 10kW system a 6,000 square foot rooftop to systems as large as 6mW on a 350,000 square foot distribution center. The team is looking beyond larger-scale commercial applications, too, as they develop a 5-10kW standardized array suitable for residential single-family applications.
Utilizing experts in tax and finance, the team is able to provide a turnkey solution to building owners and operators at incredibly low cost (in some cases no cost) to the owner or operator through tax incentives, grants, and rebates including the Federal Energy Policy Act (EPAct) and state programs, including the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity’s clean energy grant programs.