Solar panels to generate school's energy
Energy conductors create power for West Campus
Jeanne Mayer
Issue date: 9/23/09 Section: News
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The solar panel project, which began the day after graduation and lasted throughout the summer, was created by John Perlin, a Solar Energy Consultant from UCSB. He shared his vision with City College's Environmental Studies Professor Dr. Adam Green, who got the project going.
"Our first priority is energy efficiency. By having on-site solar, we are actually generating electricity and creating renewable energy supplies," said Green. "This solar system is tied into the city's electric grid. We pull electricity out on a daily basis, but we also put electricity back in.
"The 29,848 square feet solar panels are now producing approximately 235-kilowatts of solar power, which is 10 percent of the power needed on West Campus."
The cost of the project was $2,238,000. The college spends $1,000,000 per year on electricity. The solar panels will bring a 10 percent reduction of $100,000.00 per year. After around 11 years, there will essentially be free energy.
The solar panels provide many benefits to the college. They produce shaded parking, and will provide outlets for future, chargeable, electric vehicles. Due to the shade, there will be less heat radiated off the parking lot which will help cool the buildings surrounding the lots. The panels will also decrease dependency on fossil fuels.
"They look good," said Freshman Dini O'Brien. "I thought they were just carports."
Green asserted that the most valuable benefit is educational. "The solar project generates an outdoor living laboratory on campus, training students how we should be designing our systems. Students in a classroom can go outside and see what the professors are talking about - positive solutions," he said.
People interested in the project can track the panel's outputs online. "Project managers, professors and students can go online and observe the system as it generates power. It's a great educational tool," said Julie Hendricks, Director of Facilities.
Looking to the future, Joe Sullivan, vice president of business services said, "Because of the success of this project, we are looking towards doing some more projects in more areas of campus. We are looking at the parking lot 2-C next to the stadium, or parking lot 1-B along the top of the stadium near the portables."
"It's good to use green energy," said student Daniel Gilliam.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Solar lights campaign
posted 10/06/09 @ 5:25 AM PST
I'm so pleased to see public bodies investing in solar power. It is one small step towards us reducing our impact on the planet.
$2.2 million sounds like an enormous amount of money to spend to produce just 10% of the colleges power, but like the story says, after 11 years it will be providing essentially free energy. (Continued…)
San Diego Moving Company
posted 10/06/09 @ 1:42 PM PST
This is really cool. I went to the site where you could track the energy being generated in real time and that's fun to see. My only question is, if it saves $100,000/year and it cost $2. (Continued…)
Solar lights advocate
posted 12/12/09 @ 3:24 PM PST
This is great news and hopefully more institutions will follow suit. The cost is tremendous but that's only from a short sighted perspective. I'm glad there are people and organizations out there that are committed to green energy and are beyond looking at just the present. (Continued…)
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