At the Engineering Building on Colorado State University’s campus in Fort Collins, a $35,000 matching-funds contribution from the Governor’s Energy Office, as part of the state’s 2009 Solar Rebate Program, has enabled the installation of an 18.9-kilowatt solar array.
The photovoltaic (PV) panels on the building overlook the campus plaza, offering students, faculty and visitors an eyeful of solar technology at its finest. The PV panels themselves demonstrate the university’s ongoing commitment to sustainability.
The array, expected to produce more than 25,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year – or about enough to energize two homes – is also anticipated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide by about 18 metric tons per year. This is the equivalent to taking about 100 cars off the road over the array’s anticipated 25-year lifespan.
The energy from the array will tie into the Engineering Building’s electrical system, offering what CSU’s Dept. of Facilities Management energy engineer Carol Dollard calls a valuable learning experience for students that implements recent energy efficiency upgrades like fluorescent lighting, a closed-loop chilled water system, and a CO2 demand ventilation system.
The grant program, administered by the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association, is part of the Governor’s New Energy Economy, a program which CSU was instrumental in creating. The program includes 32 Colorado cities, utilities and non-profit partners, including Chaffee County, the City and County of Denver, Colorado Springs, Garfield County, and Xcel Energy.
Solar is making quite a splash in sunny Colorado, with only homeowner’s associations resisting the idea that solar roof arrays are not only essential to curb global warming but aesthetically pleasing as well. However, these homeowner’s associations, or HOAs, are going up against a 30-year-old law that prohibits such covenants from restricting or outlawing solar energy devices on aesthetic grounds, as was recently noted in the Denver Post.
A new law, passed on August 8, 2008, puts even more pressure on HOAs to comply, and extends the provision to remove not only unreasonable restrictions on solar and wind power, including solar thermal water heaters, but also on shading devices, garage and attic fans, energy-efficient outdoor lighting, evaporative (or ’swamp’) coolers and even retractable clotheslines.
However, the law also notes that residential property owners of townhomes or condos don’t have the right to install renewable energy devices (or energy-efficiency devices) on what are considered the general common elements of a structure – in this case the exterior of the building.
If reforms are to come in that area, they will likely have to come from individual HOAs re-evaluating their stance on solar panels and clotheslines.
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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Governer Helps Colorado State Go Solar
