Solar panels to save UF money

New solar panels will be installed at the University of Florida by the end of November, reducing the university’s energy costs and serving as a teaching tool for professors and students.

Progress Energy will provide the 100-kilowatt solar photovoltaic array for free through its SunSense Schools program, which offers solar energy systems to up to 10 K-12 public schools and one public post-secondary school each year to promote renewable energy education and help schools save money on energy.

UF was chosen based on factors such as the number of students attending the school, the amount of energy consumed on its campus and its commitment to renewable energy education and research. Schools with larger student populations and greater energy needs were more likely to be selected, said Progress Energy spokeswoman Suzanne Grant.

Preparation of the grounds where the panels will be installed will begin this week, said Dustin Stephany, a UF Physical Plant Division coordinator.

The ground-mounted panels will be installed at three locations on and near the school’s campus, with the largest being a 78-kilowatt system at the university’s Energy Research and Education Park on Southwest 23rd Terrace. The other systems will be located near the school’s Microbiology and Cell Science building and between Rinker Hall and Broward Hall on the school’s campus, Stephany said.

The array will produce 157,000 kilowatt-hours of solar energy for the university each year. The average home uses about 12,000 to 14,400 kilowatt hours in a year, Grant said.

The project will cost $650,000, and it is estimated that the solar array will save the university about $15,000 a year in energy costs, Stephany said. UF Office of Sustainability director Anna Prizzia said she estimates the university’s energy costs for a year to be about $47 million.

The program is funded by a part of Progress Energy customers’ energy bills that is dedicated to renewable energy efforts, Grant said.

Building construction and engineering professors will use the arrays as a part of their curriculum to teach lessons such as how to install and deconstruct a solar array.

Stephany said the location of the panels will make them easily accessible to students and easily seen by passersby.

“We want it to be visible,” he said. “We want to show people that we are committing to renewable energy technology here at the University of Florida.”

UF’s Physical Plant Division also is proposing an educational kiosk on campus in the form of a touchscreen dashboard that would allow people to interactively learn about the solar production on campus through graphs of energy produced. Stephany said the kiosk would also show people how to save energy in their own homes.

Prizzia said the solar array will be an important teaching tool that parallels the university’s goal to be carbon-neutral by 2025.

“It provides an opportunity for students to get hands-on learning with solar, which is a very important technology for our world’s energy needs,” she said.