Denison solar-power arrays nearly ready
GRANVILLE — Jeremy King can catch glimpses of the panels through the trees from his front porch, now that the leaves have fallen.
The panels are shiny and look like water. A few friends hiking on nearby trails have asked him about the new pond or lake installed on a small section of about 350 acres of forested preserve owned by Denison University, just north of the main campus.
But that’s not water — it’s a solar sea that will provide the Granville liberal-arts college with about 15 percent of its annual electricity needs.
“It’s my hope that this is the first step in many
more steps to come that could include more solar, but also could include other technologies to get us to carbon neutrality,” said King, Denison's director of sustainability and campus improvement.
Electricity generated from two solar arrays at the university will start flowing before the end of the year, thanks to an agreement between Denison and American Electric Power that was several years and a lawsuit in the making.
A total of 6,750 individual panels are in place at the sites, installed by Third Sun Solar of Athens, with a capacity to produce 2.3 megawatts of electricity. That’s enough energy to power 300 to 350 average Ohio homes, said Geoff Greenfield, the solar company's president and co-founder.
A number of Ohio colleges are using solar-produced electricity, including Ohio Northern, Antioch, Oberlin and Cedarville, King said. When the switch is flipped for the Denison system in the next few weeks, it will be one of the largest college arrays in the state.
The university has been working to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, with a goal of making its campus carbon neutral by 2030. The efforts included the creation a half-dozen years ago of a revolving loan fund that has backed more than 100 projects and helped to reduce energy use by about a third, saving about $500,000 in utility and related costs in the process.
Several years ago, Denison also began developing plans for a solar array. Stewardship was part of the impetus, as was student and faculty interest in renewable energy and related studies.
The smaller of the two new solar sites on campus has "been set up in such a way that students and faculty can have access to that site to be able to do various class projects or studies related to that," King said.
The solar arrays are owned by AEP and located on university land. They’ll be operated and maintained by Third Sun Solar, with a longterm agreement in place for Denison to purchase all of the electricity that’s generated.
The setup means stable power costs for the university, plus a means of avoiding extra charges during peak power usage.
"This gives us certainty about our cost of energy over the next 20, 25 years," said David English, Denison’s chief financial officer and vice president for finance and management.
Looking forward, Denison hopes to structure the system to provide power to essential campus functions, should something happen to the larger electric grid.
The new solar setup wasn’t all smooth sailing. A group of neighbors sued to stop the arrays, saying the village of Granville had disregarded its zoning regulations in allowing the project. But courts sided with Denison, and the legal challenge was abandoned.
The solar panels on the larger site can been seen at spots along Welsh Hills Road. King said evergreens will be planted to help screen those areas.
The rest of the Denisonowned land will remain as woodland and natural preserve, with trails providing public access around the fenced-in solar field.
And wildflowers and grasses will be planted around the panels to provide pollinator habitat for bees and monarch butterflies.