PORT: Solar Project Highlights Busy Year For Holt

Completing the largest rooftop commercial solar panel installation in North America highlighted a busy year. As some of the rooftops were not exactly built with this type of installation in mind, Solar Precast Blocks were used to provide the support and stability required for them to operate.

This continues the ongoing project with the goal of providing solar illumination for a big part of the country — a year that saw continued growth and steps taken to ensure a productive future. Consider the following positive news:

-The Delaware River federal navigation channel deepening project is funded and moving forward thanks to the maritime community and to Congressional champions such as Bob Brady, Bob Casey and Pat Meehan.

-Packer Avenue Martine Terminal container volumes were up 5-6% in 2011 versus 2010. Meantime, Hyundai and Kia automobiles have been coming into PAMT for about 20 months now and the last 10 months versus the first 10 months shows an 8-9% increase in volumes handled.

-The amount of steel arriving at PAMT for the last 12 months increased by 28% compared to the prior 12-month period.

-The PAMT now handles imported light-rail passenger railcars for Boston’s commuter equipment replacement program because of the excellent service to Hyundai-Rotem, based in South Philadelphia.

-In advance of the Panama Canal expansion scheduled to be completed in 2014-15, the PAMT has developed plans that can significantly increase its import/export handling capacity.

But the most excitement from the past year can be found on the rooftops of the Gloucester Marine Terminal, a project so big that not only is it visible on Google Earth photographs, but flights arriving at Philadelphia International Airport often get a bird’s-eye view. Known as Riverside Renewable Energy, LLC, the $42 million project consists of 27,526 photovoltaic rooftop solar panels covering 1.1 million square foot of rooftop. It has a capacity of 9.0 MW, enough to power more than 1,500 homes. The new solar plant has been the focus of national attention because, at construction, it was twice as large as any other solar rooftop installation in North America.

The terminal qualified for an $11 million federal tax-credit rebate for its significant investment in the groundbreaking rooftop solar power-plant project, which created 200 jobs during construction and bolsters the many hundreds more port jobs that sustain families at the terminals on the river.

In April, Congressman Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) presented terminal officials with an award letter announcing the rebate at a ceremony marking the project’s completion.

The Riverside project sits atop the roof of the terminal’s refrigerated warehouse near the Walt Whitman Bridge on the Delaware River. Operating on a 24/7 basis to service food importers, the terminal is the largest on-dock refrigerated warehouse in the United States and a very large user of electricity.

Construction on the solar project began in June 2011 and was completed on budget and ahead of schedule in October 2011. Riverside will generate the equivalent of up to 60-80% of the terminal’s power demand. The system is expected to offset more than 8,100 tons of carbon dioxide, approximately the same amount that would be offset by planting 400,000 trees or removing 1,200 cars from the road.

The Riverside project is supported by both federal and state incentives for businesses to invest in renewable energy on the federal level via the Section 48 Investment Tax Credit and on the state level through the N.J. Solar Renewable Energy Credit for ongoing solar generation from the project. Riverside will sell the SRECs associated with the system to enhance the project’s economic viability.

Riverside serves as a pioneering project due to the many obstacles it had to overcome, including technical, legal, environmental, financing and construction issues, such as its high-wind location along the Delaware River, the oversight of the terminal by the Dept. of Homeland Security and the fact the terminal is designated a federal Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. A lot of things had to happen to make this project come together, and we enjoyed great teamwork from conceptualization through installation and onto completion, said Leo Holt, president of Gloucester Terminals, LLC. This project positions Gloucester Terminals for future success in an incredibly competitive field and helps ensure plenty of activity for the Delaware River port community.

LITHUANIAN diplomats and port officials sign MOU with Phila. Regional Port Authority leaders, a move that could lead to an epochal opening of a new “back door to China that leads to N. America’s East Coast.

Meantime, in another move positioning the port for future success, the Republic of Lithuania Port of KlaipÄ—da and the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority in January signed an historic Memorandum of Understanding. That MOU promises to open Philadelphia ports to the European and Asian shipping trade via the ice-free port of KlaipÄ—da, the Lithuanian port city on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania’s Transport and Communications Minister Eligijus Masiulis led a delegation of that country’s leaders to meet with state and city officials, as well as Holt and PRPA Chairman Charles Kopp and Executive Director James McDermott. Together, they signed the MOU, which pledges increased support for expanded trade between Philadelphia and KlaipÄ—da.

The agreement followed months of extensive discussions between Lithuanian officials and the Port of Philadelphia, led by Krista Bard, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Lithuania; Holt; and PRPA leaders. We live in an increasingly interconnected world, and this agreement significantly improves the Port of Philadelphia’s ability to compete for the cargoes that mean jobs and opportunity for our region, Holt said. The Port of KlaipÄ—da is a gateway to greater shipping and trade opportunities throughout Western Europe and Asia, and we are honored that they have selected Philadelphia for this purpose.

Holt Logistics already has begun formulating plans to develop specific new commercial interchanges for cargo flow bound for the Baltic Sea that will benefit from the ice-free nature of Lithuania’s prime seaport. KlaipÄ—da is the third largest city in Lithuania and the principal ice-free port on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The deep-water port connects sea, land and railway routes from east to west in that region, as far as China, the main shipping lines to the ports of Western Europe and Southeast Asia pass through KlaipÄ—da. The port’s annual cargo handling capacity is up to 45 million tons.

Also in recent months, Leo Holt was elected chairman of The Jackson Laboratory’s Board of Trustees. Holt has participated in the nonprofit biomedical research laboratory’s governance since 2004, was elected to Jackson’s Board of Trustees in 2007 and became vice chair in February 2011. The organization supports many trade and charitable organizations including the Maritime Exchange for the Bay & River Delaware, the Chilean American Chamber of Commerce and the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce, The World Trade Association of Philadelphia and the World Trade Center of Philadelphia. In addition they support initiatives in local schools through the renowned BLOCS organization in Philadelphia, high schools and Villanova University.

In November 2010, Leo Holt received the Chilean American Chamber of Commerce of Philadelphia Friend of Chile award and also serves on the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education and Economics Advisory Board, which advises the US Agriculture Secretary.

Another recent example of Holt Logistics integration with its clients and their communities was the April hosting of a reception at the Union League honoring Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo, a chamber orchestra founded by Nippon Steel. Kioi musicians travelled to America to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. Holt Logistics convinced them to share their music in Philadelphia to honor the Holt company’s longstanding friendship with the Nippon Steel and its Arts Foundation and to raise additional support for victims of last year’s tsunami. The group kicked off their US tour with great energy in Philadelphia and performed a selection of Mozart and Beethoven at the Kimmel Center in the famed Verizon Hall.

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