Universities Announce Nation’s Largest Non-Utility Solar Energy Purchase
Talk about a power move.
SolarTown is located in Washington, DC, also home to some of the nation’s finest universities. Some of these universities, American University, George Washington University and George Washington University Hospital, have joined together in making everyone’s lives a little better.
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the schools have committed to sourcing more than half their power from solar farms in a 20-year agreement with Duke Energy Renewables, a company based in North Carolina.
What does this mean, you ask?
Solar power generated in North Carolina will move into the Washington region’s electrical grid for the universities saving them millions of dollars and the ability to throw around the phrase, “carbon neutrality”.
In this plan, 243,000 solar panels are expected to be fully functional by 2015 along with three solar farms that are anticipated to generate 123 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year–the equivalent of satisfying the needs of over 10,000 households.
Both universities have been looking for renewable energy sources for several years, so SolarTown congratulates our neighbors in their evolution to renewable energy. As conventional energy costs are expected to rise, schools around the country won’t find themselves not paying attention to the millions they could be saving themselves.