Phoenix Solar mit größerem Auftarg in den USA
Solar farm approved by Board of Trustees; Two percent of campus energy will be renewablewww.dailyillini.com/news/campus/...11e2-b676-0019bb30f31a.html
A 20.5-acre solar farm may provid the University with 1.8 percent of its energy by this time next year.
The solar farm comes as part of a $15.5 million plan approved Thursday by the board of trustees to move the University closer to its goal of having at least 5 percent of its power grid run on renewable energy by 2015.
Installation on the 20.5 acres of land near First Street and Windsor Road will begin this summer after the land-lease and power-purchase agreements are signed in March. The project is slated to be done in fall 2013.
While the majority of funding will come from campus administration, about $1 million will be covered by the Student Sustainability Committee and roughly $85,000 will be covered by the University’s Facilities and Services unit.
“It is going to be, if not the largest, one of the largest solar projects on any campus in the country,” said Jack Dempsey, executive director of Facilities and Services. “I think it shows the University of Illinois and their students believe in renewable energy, and they’re willing to put the resources (behind it) needed to make it happen.”
The panels purchased from Phoenix Solar Inc. will be lined in rows and tilted at a 20-degree angle for maximum sunlight absorption.
“For every kilowatt the solar farm generates, that’s one less the University has to buy from the electricity grid,” said Morgan Johnston, sustainability coordinator for Facilities and Services.
Some students aren’t happy with the project’s cost.
“Investing $15.5 million in a new energy source that replaces only 2 percent of (campus power plant) Abbott’s resource usage seems like an inefficient allocation of scarce funding,” said Mitch Hiett, senior in ACES.
But Johnston and other backers say the project will recoup some of that money. She said that over the next 20 years, the solar farm will generate enough energy that the University will save about $10.2 million.
The University was prompted to create the Illinois Climate Action Plan,which set the University’s energy goals, after signing the American College and University’s Presidents’ Climate Commitment. These steps have led the University to set a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
Marika Nell, junior in Engineering, said that while costs of renewable energy are high, the implications nonrenewable energy have on health and the environment can create even more expenses.
“The price of nonrenewable energy like coal does not include the environmental costs to it,” Nell said. “It doesn’t include the cost to human health. It seems more expensive, but when you look at the overall costs to our society, it’s not that different.”
Student trustee David Pileski said he wanted to stress solar panels weren’t the only way the University was going to meet the University’s energy goals. He said the University is also looking into wind technology and more efficient or sustainable combustibles, such as natural gas or biomass, as well as other technologies.
“I think the solar farms are a good symbol of what the University stands for,” Pileski said. “To see that blend of agriculture, technology and renewable energy, to me, is a bright beacon for the future, and the innovation that is occurring at Illinois.”
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