Ithaca College is joining the growing list of colleges, like SUNY Cortland, ESF and SU, using solar power to become a more sustainable campus. However, unlike those schools, the 9000 solar panels won’t be located on campus.
"So this solar array is not physically located on campus," said Jerome Gagliano, IC Director of Energy Management and Sustainability. "It’s located on the lake about 40 miles up the lake in (the town of) Seneca and it’s done through what’s called a power purchase agreement.
The 15-acre solar installation will produce over 3.5 million-kilowatt hours of electricity.
"So is that system directly powering our buildings?" Gagliano said. "No but its feeding energy into the grid that greater Ithaca community all pulls energy from."
Meters track how much energy is being produced and Ithaca College receives economic credits to help offset their monthly electrical bill plus the college avoids the upfront cost.
"The power purchase agreement brings in a third-party investor that puts up all the money for the installation, the cost to install the system as well as the annual maintenance," Gagliano said.
Plus the college will have online access to all the data from the site for research and education.
"We made sure as part of our agreement with the investors that it could be used as a learning laboratory, as a research center so we’re allowed to take staff and students up there to be on site," Gagliano said.