O&G Industries, Connecticut's largest privately held construction company, recently went live with a 1.3-megawatt (MW) solar array at its quarry on Roxbury Road in Southbury, Conn.

The 3,762-panel array is coupled with a 280-kilowatt (kW) Energy Storage System (ESS) that will help to augment supply during peak demand cycles. This includes early morning hours when the sun isn't strong enough to generate at full capacity while demand at the facility peaks with the startup of the quarry and asphalt plant operations.

The solar array sits on 5-acres and will produce the energy equivalent necessary to power 150 homes. The project is one of three solar projects that O&G has developed with the quarry installation being the first of its kind in the State. Solar arrays also have been installed on the rooftops of the company's fleet maintenance facility in Torrington and mason supply showroom in Bridgeport.

The solar arrays are one of many sustainable and energy saving initiatives the company has undertaken in the past year. In New Milford and Stamford, among other locations, the company is upgrading burner controls, adding variable frequency fan drives, eliminating air leaks and installing insulation on tanks and piping at the company's asphalt plants. When the upgrades are completed, the plants, the first two registered in EPA's nationwide Energy Star asphalt plant pilot program, are expected to achieve much greater energy efficiency.

The project was completed in collaboration with Eversource, Solect Energy and EnelX.