Union roof hosts UNC’s newest solar panels

Only visible from the top floors of Davis Library, newly installed solar panels on top of the Student Union have joined the panels topping Morrison and Cobb residence halls.

The Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee spearheaded the initiative after being approached by Strata Solar in February 2013 about the possible donation of solar panels.

“The Union wanted to do construction while there weren’t a lot of students here. They ended up doing construction between the second summer session and before students started moving in for fall semester,” energy committee co-chairperson Charlie Egan said.

The renewable energy committee is an arm of student government. Every student contributes $4 to the committee as part of the Green Fee charged in mandatory student fees each semester. The committee’s fees add up to about $200,000 per year.

Energy committee co-chairperson Jessie Robinson said the Union was the perfect place for the donated solar panels.

“It affects the students because student fees go toward this Union,” she said. “So we’re hoping to save money to save money for students.”

Because the 64 panels on top of the Union were donated, it cost the Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee only $380 to install them, Robinson said.

“It was really too cool to use students’ fees to save students money for the future,” she said.

The new set of solar panels is currently the largest solar energy-generating project at UNC. The panels can produce approximately 24,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year — enough to offset burning 33,000 pounds of coal.

Scott Hudson, senior associate director of facility management at the Student Union, said students might not know about the Union’s solar panels yet, though the panels have operated since Sept. 15.

“There hasn’t been any official announcement yet,” he said. “A ribbon-cutting event is being planned the week after fall break in October.”

Egan said students will be able to see the amount of energy generated by the solar panels on top of the Union.

“We’re going to input a smart TV at the Union by Alpine Bagel that uses Wi-Fi to interact with the system,” he said. “So it’s going to show you a stream of live data about how the system is actually performing.”

He said the screen will also show information about how much the system reduces emissions, among other interesting facts about the Union’s solar power generation.

Robinson said the committee is always looking for new projects and UNC is very supportive of renewable energy compared with other places.

“We have faculty advisers that are so supportive and really want to see it happen,” she said.

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