The Lafayette College Solar Committee represents a collaboration between LEAP, the Green Committee, and interested members of the Lafayette community. It is organized for the purposes of bringing renewable energy in the form of solar power to Lafayette's campus, and educating its members and surroundings on topics of renewable solar energy.

Meeting Information

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Meeting results and other events:
• August 30, 2007: Overview of proposal and current progress, mostly posted on this page.
• September 5: LEAP fall kickoff meeting; brief overview & intro to Solar Committee work.
• September 6: The City of Graz, the engineering and social context where the proposal is coming from.
• September 13: "Finalize" presentation for administration.
• September 18 Green Committee Meeting: Presentation to administration.
• September 20: Report of presentation to administration, and laying down committee's next steps.
• September 27: E-meeting begins for check in on support-raising progress.
• October 11: Booth/exhibit at "Visions Of the Energy Future" conference, Lafayette College.
• October 23: Second Green Committee meeting.
• December 8-9: All-weekend modeling and numbers verification.
• December 10: New LOA and Sample EPA presented to Lafayette.
• Spring, 2008: Weekly follow-ups with administration; delays in the legal department; building administrative support for solar-thermal and photovoltaic proposals.
• April 24: Quad Solar Demo and Guest Lecture - Bill Hennessey, former president and current outreach director of the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Association.
• May 5: Lafayette signs Letter Of Agreement for Phase I engineering.
• July 28: Contract completion date for Phase I engineering.

We are currently pursuing an opportunity to partner with a company called SOLID (based in Austria) for a sustainable, affordable, solar thermal energy installation on campus. Click here for information about the company and some of their other solar projects [PDF, 2MB].
Current state: We are have a received initial proposal and have signed on to the Phase I engineering from SOLID. They have proposed installation of a large-scale solar plant, with a collector area of 12.5% of Kirby Sports Center's roof area. The expected system lifetime of 25 years, with net savings over $1.6 million dollars (AFTER costs, which are put up by SOLID). Click here to read the proposal [PDF, Lafayette network login required].

Timeline: We have received the initial proposal and while the engineering is going on, we are building support among students, faculty, staff, and administration for the final contract. You can help! In August 2008, we anticipate presenting a contract to the administration and hope to clear the Trustees this Fall semester. From there:

• detailed system design: 1st – 4th week
• delivery subassembled pumping group and site supervision: 8th – 10th week
• delivery subassembled pumping group and site supervision: 8th – 10th week
• delivery and mounting solar plant: 10th – 14th week
• installation control unit and putting into operation: 14th – 17th week

Kirby Sports Center has been named as our primary pilot site. The roof is pictured below, photographed just prior to the recent renovations to Fisher Field.

Our organization came about after making an initial application to The Sustainable Energy Fund (SEF)'s Solar Scholars program. Their goal was for Pennsylvania to be the first state in the U.S. to have PV systems installed on each of its 152 institutions of higher learning. The Solar Scholars program is currently inactive.

The Solar Committee has been working with the Electrical and Computer Engineering department on its design of next year's Senior Design project. Though the project is not official and still requires funding, most of the students graduating from the ECE department in 2009 will likely be working on a photovoltaic design project. The project is the design of all the electronics to go between a PV array and 120VAC lab appliances (e. g. computers). The students will also design monitoring equipment to measure the system output and efficiency (incl. measuring ambient light conditions), and consider/design various ways to increase the efficiency of the system. Students will examine panel options from various vendors to determine what is best for the projected design, after studying the physics of the devices in the fall semester.

If we were to install a second PV system on campus, our primary choice of location is the roof of Farber Hall. Built in 1978, Farber Hall is a coed student residence hall that features special interest group housing including a Japanese language section and Haven, a substance-free area. Farber hall also features kitchen and laundry facilities. This site was chosen for its flat, solar-exposed roof with relatively easy and safe access. Parapets surrounding the roof would allow the college to let trusted students to go up to do maintenance as needed.

The South roof of Marquis Hall (below) has been identified as an alternative great location for a photovoltaic installation. A panel monitoring system statistics (such as amount of power generated) could then be installed in the student restaurant inside (the other side of the big domed windows). The North side of Marquis has a roof with nearly equal exposure, which could be used if we wished to hide the panels from view.

What does a 3 kWp system look like, you ask? The photo below is a 3 kW Kyocera system installed in a residential application in Germany. A German dealer I contacted estimated the price of this system around $16,900-17,700 plus tax and shipping. I know Germany has more government subsidies for solar, so that may or may not be a transferrable price. Here's a picture of the system, to estimate size!
Photo: Kyocera Corp.