Four years after a 104-kilowatt solar panel array on the roof of Eastern Mennonite University’s Hartzler Library came online, the university has announced plans to significantly expand its commitment to renewable energy with more solar panels on and beside the University Commons.
The new installation, expected to be in operation by the summer of 2015, will be able to generate 511 kilowatts of electricity (as measured in “direct-current” or DC power). The panels will be mounted on canopies above the University Commons parking lot and on that building’s roof. Along with the original library array, the new installation should allow EMU to produce up to 14 percent of its annual electric demand from solar energy.
“That’s a huge percentage,” said Drew Gallagher, Virginia campus organizer with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network who attended a public meeting in early October announcing the new solar initiative. Afterwards, in an email to EMU President Loren Swartzendruber, Gallagher wrote of his plans to begin “showcasing EMU’s efforts as your campus is on the cutting edge among Virginia colleges.”
As was the case with the installation on the library roof, EMU has entered an agreement with Secure Futures, a solar energy development company based in Staunton, Virginia, to install, operate and maintain the new array. Secure Futures president and CEO Tony Smith is also a professor at EMU’s master’s of business administration program.
The new solar project will proceed under a unique “customer self-generation agreement” between EMU and Secure Futures. The arrangement, devised by Secure Futures to overcome various regulatory hurdles that have made Virginia a relatively difficult state for solar energy development, requires no capital investment from EMU and will reduce the university’s electric bill from the very start.
EMU will achieve additional across-the-board operational savings with the help of a natural gas generator that will be installed at the same time as the solar panels. The generator will help the university lower its peak electric demand, a measurement of consumption used to set electric rates throughout the year. With the additional solar capacity and occasional help from the generator – primarily during the winter, when the solar panels produce less electricity – that lower peak demand will put EMU on a cheaper rate scale with the Harrisonburg Electric Commission, Smith said.
The solar panels and generator will also serve as a “nano-grid,” improving EMU’s emergency preparedness with the capacity to meet electricity demands in Northlawn’s dorm rooms and dining hall during a wider power outage, Smith added.
“It’s another step in a long history of EMU paying attention to energy use,” said Swartzendruber. “EMU’s been leading efforts in sustainability going back to the ’70s.”
Swartzendruber, who serves on the board of the Evangelical Environmental Network, has been an outspoken proponent for sustainability. He said the conviction is rooted in a moral obligation created by the disproportionate negative impact climate change will have on the needy.
At the public event announcing the new solar project, Swartzendruber was asked if he would encourage state leaders to enact regulations that would make it easier for more solar and other renewable energy development in Virginia.
“I’m certainly willing to lend my voice where that seems appropriate,” he said later, while adding he has no specific plans to do so at this point (he does, however, regularly interact with leaders in Richmond when he goes to lobby on behalf of state tuition assistance grants).
Gallagher, from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said he was “really excited how strong of a stance [Swartzendruber] appeared to be willing to make on the issue of climate change.”
“You could tell that it was more than just an issue that they were working on just because it’s hot right now, or something that people would want to see [a university] doing,” Gallagher continued. “I work with campuses all over the state… Now when I go to new schools and help them install solar panels, I’m going to point to EMU and say, ‘Look at all the success they’ve had.’ … I think it’s great what they’re doing, and it’s really exciting to see them pushing the boundaries and setting the bar high.”
Yay! So excited to see this moving forward! I’m curious what barriers exist to additional large scale projects, since it appears capital from EMU is not the problem… Does Secure Futures need more capital? Are there creative financing opportunities that would allow the community to financially support additional panels, while receiving some return on their investment?
Great questions Jared. What limitation is preventing EMU from generating 50% of it’s own power needs? A quick google satellite view of EMU shows that there is plenty of under-utilized roof space on campus to generate all of the University’s electricity needs when the sun is shining. See: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Eastern+Mennonite+University/@38.4703882,-78.8789989,614m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x89b4ed26a75d58e7:0x1b754788050ee616 Community financed solar is the type of investment that I like to make.
Cory, thank you, while EMU has a fair amount of roof space, most of what remains is not economically or technically suitable for solar, in terms of orientation, size, roof penetrations, and/or shading. The more significant limitation is that with this project we will have maxed out the 500 KW (AC) solar net-metering limit imposed by the Harrisonburg Electric Commission, pursuant to guidelines established by their wholesale supplier, Dominion Power of Virginia. – Tony Smith
Jared, great question, we’re now exploring different approaches to financing the solar project. Investors would need to have passive income (such as real estate investments) to take advantage of the passive gains (tax credits and depreciation) thrown off by the project. We may possibly explore a share secured loan (“solar CD’s”) with members of the credit union, as we did for the Phase I solar project, and we will keep you and the community posted. – Tony Smith
“… during a wider power outage …” – are you serious? Do you plan to install batteries or how are you going to light dorms at night in case of a “wider” power outage from photovoltaic panels when there will (as far as I am informed) no sun? That said, why settle for one third or one fourth of the thermal energy you could “harvest” via thermal collectors that even cost less, have a longer life span, whose yield can be stored and which will add much more to your bottom line because … as everywhere else in the world, your campus’ main energy needs are in the form of thermal heat???
Darragh, you are correct that solar panels do not produce electricity at night, but natural gas generation (300 KW) we are installing as part of this project will do that, and for that reason, will enable EMU to operate as a regional emergency shelter by making the dining facilities open even during power outages. Solar thermal represents a great investment, one that EMU has in place already for Cedarwood, but unfortunately, it will not keep the lights on at night either. – Tony Smith