Why parking lots
The cheapest renewable energy on a federal campus is the kind that uses real estate already on the books. Houston had acres of open parking, which is sun falling on asphalt all day. Building the array overhead turns that into generation and puts the cars in the shade, and it does not consume a single new acre or displace anything the hospital needs.
That is why carport PV keeps showing up on VA campuses. The land question, which usually kills solar projects before they start, is already answered.
What an owner’s representative actually does
The phrase sounds vague until you list it out. On this project our scope covered daily on site inspections, weekly progress reports, review of submittals and shop drawings, schedule evaluations, assistance with contract modifications, progress meetings, and the final inspection. The contractor ran the build. We watched it for the owner.
It also covered the unglamorous financial work: validating progress payments before the VA paid them, processing change orders, and keeping the project records straight. On a $21M build, that paperwork is where money is either protected or lost.
Reviewing the design before anyone breaks ground
One piece of the scope happened before construction started. We reviewed the completed design for defects, errors and omissions. Finding a problem in a drawing set costs a revision. Finding the same problem after the contractor has mobilized costs a change order, and on a schedule like this one it costs time too.
One definition of progress
An owner's rep also keeps everyone working from the same definition of on schedule. Without that, the contractor's version and the owner's version drift apart until somebody has to litigate the difference.
Then we commissioned it
Being both owner's rep and commissioning agent is the combination we like, because the same team that watched the work get installed is the team that verifies whether it performs. We monitored commissioning and provided post construction support through closeout.
A 5 MW array that is built correctly and controlled incorrectly still underproduces. Verification is how an owner learns the difference before the first utility bill arrives.
Why it matters
The VA ended up with 5 MW of on site generation, shaded parking, and a project that closed out with somebody on their side of the table the whole way through. The panels are the visible part. The daily inspections, the payment validations and the commissioning report are the reason the panels do what the contract said they would.