Furman University has announced plans to install a major solar facility along Poinsett Highway near the campus, a $1.7 million project that will significantly reduce the university\u2019s energy costs and bring its solar power production to the maximum allowed under state law.<\/p>\n
The 743-kW solar photovoltaic (PV) array will be located on six acres of land near the main campus entrance on Poinsett Highway.\u00a0 The land has already been cleared and the project is slated for completion in early 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis solar project, the largest of its kind for a South Carolina college campus, highlights our ongoing efforts to become a more sustainable campus and moves us another step toward our path to become carbon neutral,\u201d said Furman president Elizabeth Davis. \u00a0\u201cThe high visibility of the project along Poinsett Highway stands as a testament to our commitment and transition to cleaner renewable energies.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Jeff Redderson, Furman\u2019s Associate Vice President for Facility and Campus Services, the solar installation will reduce the university\u2019s campus-wide electricity expenditures by up to 5 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 3 percent, supporting the university\u2019s goal of carbon neutrality by 2026.\u00a0 He estimated that reduced energy costs will bring a return on Furman\u2019s investment in eight years.<\/p>\n
Duke Energy announced last week that it will provide the university with a $997,000 solar rebate to help defray the costs of the project.\u00a0 The company launched its rebate program in October 2015 to assist South Carolina customers with the cost of installing solar.\u00a0 The rebate to Furman is one of the company\u2019s largest to date.<\/p>\n
Furman has contracted with Power Secure Solar, a North Carolina-based company with a local office in Greenville, to oversee the solar installation.<\/p>\n
Until recently, statewide regulatory limits on solar power production had limited Furman\u2019s efforts to achieve its renewable energy goals. \u00a0In 2014, the passage of the Distributed Energy Resource Program Act\u2014or Act 236\u2014increased on-site solar power production limits from 100 kilowatts to a maximum capacity of 1,000 kilowatts.<\/p>\n
For more information, contact Vince Moore in Furman\u2019s News and Media Relations office 864-294-3107; vince.moore@furman.edu<\/a>) or Ryan Mosier at Duke Energy (864-370-5036; ryan.mosier@duke-energy.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Furman University has announced plans to install a major solar facility along Poinsett Highway near the campus, a $1.7 million project that will significantly reduce the university\u2019s energy costs and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":6050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,17,37,18,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-centers-and-institutes","category-earth-environmental-and-sustainability-sciences","category-shi-institute-for-sustainable-communities","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}