Saturday, July 10th, Boone County, Missouri – Early last Saturday morning a group of ten Show Me Solar members began to gather at a home west of Ashland, Missouri.  Some were nearby neighbors and others came from as far away as St. Louis and Memphis to participate.  Their mission – to lend a hand to a fellow Show Me Solar member and at the same time gain some experience installing a solar system to build their own skill set.  In this case, the Energy Raiser consisted of more than doubling an already existing solar electric array.  After several weeks of prepping the job site, including mounting a combiner box and erecting scaffolding, homeowner Ron Neely was ready for some extra help.  Twelve additional ET-Solar 230 Watt panels were added to the existing array of seven Evergreen 190 Watt panels.  From the start, Ron had planned to expand the array so plenty of Unirac rails were already on the roof.  In order to make room for the new panels, the existing array had to be relocated.  The roof was hot and steep.  In the true spirit of the Energy Raiser, Larry Lile, a member of Show Me Solar and participant in the Neely Energy Raiser brought along extra safety harnesses to share with those who did not have their own.  Larry also happens to be a professional electrical engineer with Project Engineering Solutions headquartered in Columbia, Missouri and his electrical expertise came in handy in solving some wiring issues.  Space only allowed for four at a time on the roof with room for one or two more to view from the top of the scaffold.  One unanticipated difficulty was the fact that the new solar modules were thicker than the old and the brackets at the end of the rails that had been installed with the previous modules weren’t thick enough to hold down the new modules without modification.  During the course of the day, another problem was encountered with the grounding system but a solution was found with the help of Larry and Will Huie, electrician and owner of Aeon Electrical Contracting.  The crew enjoyed the sunny Missouri summer day, getting to work together and learn a little about each other and by the end of the day nearly completed mounting the new modules.  Plans were made to return to finish the job and Ron thanked everyone for a job well done.