Solar power system installed

December 15, 2005

The college on Friday completed the installation of 420 solar energy panels on the roof of the Hart Gymnasium.

The panels, which now cover the 12,000-square-foot south roof, each are expected to produce an average of 66 kilowatts of electricity, and are capable of producing up to 165 kilowatts in ideal conditions. The gymnasium is one of the biggest consumers of power on the campus. Along with additional heating, air-conditioning and ventilation improvements that have been made campus wide, the solar panels will save the college up to $1,000 a day in cooling costs alone,.

The installation of the panels was delayed for several months before special clips—which mount the panels on seams that stand in rows on the existing roof—could be approved by the state. The college opted to use the special clips because an existing mounting system would have meant drilling hundreds of holes in the roof deck, something the college administration felt would compromise the roof’s integrity.

When the solar panels produce surplus electricity, a new energy management system re-routs the excess power to buildings that need it most. The solar generation system—a component of the college’s distributed generation structure that has been installed over the past 18 months—is based on advanced the photovoltaic panels that generate free electricity while producing no harmful emissions. The panels are solar panels convert sunlight directly into electricity, are virtually maintenance free, and have a proven useful life of 25 years.

Since the Hart Gymnasium is a multi-use athletics facility with classrooms and labs, it is in constant use and is by virtue of

its size a huge consumer of electricity. With a field of 210 solar panels, generating 58-kilowatts of free electricity, IVC will

save as much as $1,000 a day in cooling costs for the gym and an adjacent building. The solar panels