Ohio solar developer braves 2 snowstorms to win school contract

A Cincinnati-based solar company, National Energy Control (NEC), won a contract to install solar panels, EV chargers, and new roofing across 21 school buildings for the East Orange School District in New Jersey. The company found the project through a public request for proposals and put together its bid despite two separate snowstorms that disrupted travel and even delayed the shipment of the bid package itself. The company ended up hand-delivering the paperwork to make the deadline.

The school district broke ground on the project in June, and the planned solar installation has grown to 5.85 megawatts of output. The project bundles solar power with roof repairs and EV charging for the district's electric school buses, an approach where one contractor handles multiple building upgrades together rather than separately.

For a homeowner, this story is mostly a behind-the-scenes look at how a school district project like this gets built, rather than something with a direct action for your own house. But it's a reminder that solar, roofing, and electrical work are increasingly bundled together in larger projects, and that public buildings like schools are a growing part of the solar market. If your own home needs a new roof and you're considering solar, pairing those projects is a similar idea, and it may be worth asking installers in your area whether they handle both roofing and solar together, since combining the work can sometimes simplify permitting and financing.