Rooftop solar and battery storage for all fourteen Polar Freight warehouses, built so a dark grid at 3 a.m. never reaches the freezers. Prepared by Coldline Solar for Dana, Ruth, Marcus and Priya.
00:00 · proposal CS-PF-1107, valid until 28 January 2027
PF-01 Linden NJ · 212,000 square feet of roof, a Tuesday in August
Drag the sun across the sky, or press play. The panels, the battery, the freezers and the grid all answer to the same clock. Then run the storm.
The panels never cover the whole load at Linden, and we won't pretend they do. A freezer warehouse draws around a megawatt all day and all night. What the panels do is cut what you buy between 9 and 5, and the battery does the rest. It holds a full charge overnight in case the grid drops, then spends the top of it between 2 and 8 p.m., when the utility charges double.
The battery never spends below 55 percent on an ordinary afternoon. That floor is three hours of freezer power, kept back on purpose. It refills from the grid after 8 p.m. at the cheap rate, so by the time the dock goes quiet it's full again for the night.
03:00 · a line of thunderstorms takes the feeder down for four hours
DOFor Dana, COO. Will anything in the freezers spoil?
No. Here's the whole night, minute by minute, from the same model that runs the scene above. The grid is gone from 03:00 to 07:00 and nobody needs to touch a thing.
of freezer power still in the battery when the grid comes back at 07:00. The rooms never leave −10°F.
Linden's diesel unit covers the blast freezer and half the storage rooms. We wire the battery in front of it, so the generator becomes the backup behind it.
Each site switches over on a Sunday, in one four-hour window, with your generator running and your facilities lead on site. We never cut a live freezer feed without them.
Every battery reports to our control room in Trenton. If one drops below its overnight floor, a person calls your shift lead within ten minutes.
06:12 · sunrise, and the first light reaches the roofs
MBFor Marcus, VP Real Estate. Will this hurt my roofs or my landlords?
We flew every roof in September. Ten are ready now. Four are near the end of their membrane, and we'd restore those before a single panel goes up. Seven are leased, and three landlords have already signed.
Ballasted racking sits on the membrane, held by weight. The three roofs with wind exposure get a few attached feet, each flashed and covered by our 20-year leak warranty.
If any roof needs replacing in the first ten years, we take the panels off and put them back at no cost. Once per site, written into the agreement.
Structural letter, insurance certificate, a one-page lease rider and our removal bond. Edison, Worcester and Hunts Point signed in October. Four are still reading.
13:03 · solar noon, every panel at full output
RLFor Ruth, CFO. What does it cost this year, and when does it pay back?
The equipment, the crews and the warranty are the same in all three. The only thing that changes is who owns the system and who takes the tax credit. Drop any site or any line and the number moves.
If Polar can use the credit in 2027, buy. It's worth the most over twenty years by a wide margin.
If that $8.4M of credit has nowhere to go, take the lease. Same panels, same batteries, same guarantee, nothing down, and you're cash positive from the first bill. We'd only point you to the PPA if Polar wants the system entirely off its books.
| Year one | 20 years | Payback |
|---|
Same sites and lines as your selection. Assumes utility rates rise 2.5 percent a year, panels lose 0.5 percent of output a year, and Polar's blended rate at each site from its 2025 bills.
17:30 · the panels are fading and the battery takes the peak
PSFor Priya, Sustainability. How far does this get us toward 2030?
Polar committed to cutting electricity emissions 42 percent by 2030. This project gets you part of the way. The bars follow the sites you picked above.
19:54 · sunset, and the battery takes over for the night
Thirteen months, three waves of sites. The slow part is the utility, not us, so we file every interconnection in the first month and build while they review.
21:00 · night shift starts and the battery is full again
If any site makes less than 95 percent of its estimated energy in a year, we pay Polar the difference in cash at that year's rate. For twenty years, under every option.
Panels 25 years. Batteries 15 years, with at least 70 percent of capacity left at year fifteen. Workmanship and roof penetrations 20 years.
10 percent at signature, 40 percent when each wave's equipment arrives, 40 percent at mechanical completion, 10 percent at switch-on. Nothing is paid for a site that hasn't started.
The equipment prices here are locked until 28 January 2027. After that, panel and battery prices move with the market and we'd re-quote.
No cut-over without your facilities lead on site and your generator running. If anything on our side causes product loss, we cover it, up to $2M per event.
Buy the system at year seven at fair market value, or at any later anniversary. Sell a building and the agreement transfers to the buyer, or we move the system once at cost.
We carry $10M general liability and name Polar and each landlord as additional insured. Certificates go out with the landlord packs.
Roof access during install, a facilities contact at each site, and 12 months of interval meter data, which we already have for nine sites.
four open questions, stated plainly so nobody finds them later
If your tax liability can't absorb it, the buy option loses its edge and the lease wins. Your tax team can answer this in a week.
Both packs went out on 9 October. Neither has replied. If either says no, that site drops and the totals above show you exactly what changes.
Their queue is running eight to eleven months. We've put Hunts Point in the last wave so it can't hold up the other thirteen.
They're the fastest emissions win on the page, but they change how your drivers work at the dock. It may be a separate decision for ops.
23:59 · the freezers have been cold all day, and the battery's full
Accepting holds these prices and your place in the utility queues. The full agreement follows within two business days for legal to read.
Accept below with the sites and ownership you've picked. Change it later at no cost until the surveys finish.
All fourteen interconnection applications, plus the landlord packs for the four still reading.
Structural surveys done. If a number moves, we tell you which site and why, before anything's ordered.
Leah Moreno, your Coldline lead, will send the agreement for exactly this within two business days. Nothing is binding until both sides sign it.