SOMERS, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is seeing significant savings after converting a parking lot on campus into a small solar farm.
“Since the lot wasn’t being used, we decided it was a perfect, ready-made space for the solar array,” said Emily Reed, the school’s sustainability coordinator. “The main thing for our campus is that we have reduced our electrical purchasing by about 25% since it was installed, so that’s a big utility savings for our campus.”
A solar array is a collection of multiple solar panels. They are arranged in a way to maximize electricity production. They collect energy by following the sun throughout the day and also pick up sunlight reflected from the ground.
“If you get snow cover, for example, in the winter on a sunny day, you’re going to get the reflectivity off of that snow that will also help generate a small percentage of energy, thus making them even more efficient,” said John Bruch, chief facilities officer for UW-Parkside.
The solar array also offers an opportunity to provide up-close, hands-on learning for students pursuing careers in the expanding field of diversified energy production.
“We want to be able to prepare students for their careers, whether that might be in alternative energy installation, or working on planning, and being engineers and managers, so this sort of project allows us to take students and show them in action what’s going on,” said Reed.