Colleges Investing Heavily in Solar

[jpak]

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/08/colleges-investing-heavily-in-solar

California Sustainability is an important selling point for colleges and universities. Students are not only demanding educational programs around renewable energy, they're encouraging their own institutions to "walk the walk," and install systems on campus.

A number of colleges around North America have installed large solar PV or solar thermal systems. But Butte College in Northern California claims it will be the first to be “net energy positive” when it finally develops a 2.7 MW PV system next year. The PV project is an addition to a 1.85 MW system already on campus. That will bring the system total to 4.5 MW of capacity.

If the system generates the 6.4 million kWh a year that is expected, Butte College will generate more power than it consumes, and will therefore sell electricity back to the grid.

College officials credit the student body for actively pushing the college to develop the system. The project will cost about $17 million to build, with around $13 million coming from a federal clean energy bond program known as CREBS.

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