UNBC is celebrating its 25th anniversary with the installation of 25 new solar panels.
16 of the panels were donated from the Highglen Montessori Elementary School and School District 57.
“They’d installed them as part of a project several years ago, as supported by students and Solar BC, but then that school had a fire,” explains UNBC Assistant Director of Facilities David Claus, “Then the panels weren’t being utilized within School District 57, and some of the parents that had been involved in that project approached the university about an opportunity to utilize the panels.”
UNBC purchased 9 more panels afterwards to bring the total to 25.
The panels are being installed with frames that tilt according to the sun’s path, and the university will take advantage of the opportunity to teach students about the economics of solar energy.
“We want them to be visible, so people can come up and see how they’re installed and that sort of thing,” says Claus, “Part of this project is to create some teaching modules around solar energy that can be used with university-aged classes, and also with the elementary and middle school ranges.”
The school will continue to get most of it’s power from BC Hydro, but the estimated 5000 kilowatts of electricity produced by the panels per year is a great start.
“That’s about $500 worth of electricity. On a good day like today, with maximum sunshine, we can power 145 laptops at one point in time.”
According to Claus, most houses use roughly 10,000 kWh hours over the course of a year.
The total cost of the project is $53,000.
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