Mountain Maryland Co-op member receives Historic District award for solar

By Woody Getz and Laura McBride on July 20, 2017

Solar co-op member Skott Brill recently earned the Frostburg City Historic District Commission’s 2017 Project of the Year design award in the residential category. He was honored at a May city council meeting.

Brill recently had a 12-panel PV solar array installed on his garage rooftop in part of the Frostburg’s Historic District. The 3.9 kW array will generate approximately 4,700 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of Brill’s electricity each year and save him approximately $470 per year in electricity costs.

The project had to receive approval of the City’s Historic District Commission. The commission considers the relationship of the exterior architectural features of a building to the remainder of the structure and surrounding area, the general compatibility of exterior design, scale, proportion, arrangement, texture, and materials proposed for use, and the appearance or view of proposed changes from the street.  It also considers the design guidelines set forth by the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and the City of Frostburg’s Register of Historic Places Guidelines.

A Building Permit was also required and the project was subjected to a Plan Review and Inspection process.  More information regarding the Frostburg HDC and the Building Permit process can be obtained on the city’s website or by calling City Hall at 301-689-6000.

Cumberland’s Big D Electric, the company selected through the co-op process installed the system. The co-op covered Allegany and Garrett Counties and was facilitated by MD SUN.  In Frostburg, the Mountain Maryland Solar Co-op was co-sponsored by the City of Frostburg’s Mayor & Council and FrostburgFirst.

The City of Frostburg, population 9,000, is the home of Frostburg State University and the western terminus of the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad and is a Great Allegheny Passage Trail Town.  Also known as Maryland’s “Mountain City”, Frostburg leads Allegany County in residential solar PV installations.

This article was prepared by Woody Getz and Laura McBride.
City of Frostburg