University of Delaware to Save $30,000 a Year with Solar Power System

The University of Delaware has the oldest solar lab in the nation and is now looking to deck its rooftops with solar panels (perhaps now is a good time to go solar).  The University of Delaware has announced that its new solar system (almost up and running) will save the University over $30,000 a year (or even as much as $60,000 per year, if electricity prices rise as people are expecting they will). This is 1/3 to 2/3 the cost of the system (which has a price tag of $90,000), meaning it will pay for itself in 3 years.

This 1-MW project will also make the University the largest solar-power generator in Delaware (OK, not the largest state in the country, but still…). However, with Delaware Technical & Community College leaders planning a 1.6-MW solar project, that title may not last for long.

Of course, researchers at the Energy Institute, the University of Delaware’s groundbreaking energy lab, wish the University had got on the solar bandwagon sooner. But they are happy that it has now, at least.

“It’s been frustrating at times,” Steve Hegedus of the Energy Institute said. “I can’t believe it’s taken this long, but it finally has some energy behind it.”

Delaware Online reports that a big stimulus for new renewable energy projects in Delaware such as this one was state legislation this year requiring that utilities get more of their power from renewable energy sources.

“Momentum for renewable energy has sparked significant spending and investment at campuses across the state, making them forerunners to the green-energy initiatives that state leaders have proposed,” Wade Malcom of Delaware Online writes. “Perhaps the most consequential came this summer with legislation that requires utility companies here to derive 25 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2025.”

Looks like Delaware has the solar bug.

via CalFinder Solar

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Photo Credit: mathplourde via flickr (CC license)