Univ. preparing to install solar panel array

The university is preparing a massive array of solar panels for a building it purchased along Greenbelt Road, officials said, and the array should be providing electricity to the university by this summer.

What will become the largest of its kind in this university's history, the 2,700-panel, 6.4-acre array is part of the University Presidents' Climate Commitment, which calls for more renewable energy in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.

The Severn Building — the new name for the former Washington Post printing plant on Greenbelt Road that the university purchased last year — is now under renovations to serve as a multi-purpose building with academic, storage and office space. The building's solar panels will produce 630 kilowatt-hours of electricity, more than 100 times the output of the university's second-largest solar panel array, which is on the roof of Cole Field House.

Susan Corry, Facilities Management's conservation manager, said the process for designing the array began last summer, and officials hope to begin construction in March and finish by June.

Because of the high cost of solar panels, the array will be paid for under a power purchase agreement between the university and Washington Gas Energy Services, the contractor hired for the project. Under the agreement, WGES will cover much of the still-undetermined cost of installing the panels, and the university will subsequently pay for the power the panels produce. A $630,000 grant from the Maryland Energy Administration is also going toward the project.

"The opportunity came up with funding for the project, and we're always trying to incorporate renewable energy on campus," Corry said.

According to Corry, the university originally wanted the array for Comcast Center. But the curved roof of Comcast provided too much of a challenge, she said, and many other university buildings have too much shade or other limitations for solar panels to be successful.

"It's unfortunate we couldn't [build the array] on campus, but at least we could get it on a university building," Corry said.

Office of Sustainability Manager Mark Stewart wrote in an e-mail that the new array "demonstrates the university's sincere commitment to sustainability."

"I hope that students, faculty, and staff will be inspired to think of all the other things the university community can do to further reduce environmental impacts," he wrote.

Matthew Popkin, the Student Government Association's sustainability director, said the new solar panels are a step in the right direction.

"It's great that we're expanding to renewable energy … it shows the university is committed to this problem," he said.

But students said using solar panels and other technology can't be the university's only environmental initiative.

"The university needs to take steps in a lot of different directions if they want to make a change," junior mechanical engineering major Dylan Rebois said.

Popkin echoed the sentiment that the solar panels, while appreciated, aren't everything.

"It's not a one-size-fits-all solution," he said of the panels. "There are lifestyle changes we need to make as well."

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