Southern Oregon University
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

SOU has a 56 kW solar photovoltaic system on the roof of the Higher Education Center in Medford. The system consists of 319 Solarworld crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules (each with 175-watt maximum power) and a SatCon 50-kW inverter. The photovoltaic modules were installed in twenty-nine strings of eleven modules. The modules were installed at a 20-degree tilt on a rack system. The solar photovoltaic system was designed to meet the “Solar Electric System Requirements” developed by the Energy Trust of Oregon. The annual useful energy produced by the solar photovoltaic system is approximately 70,741 kilowatt-hours per year, and the STC rating is 55,825 watts. SOU also has a 6kw solar array atop the Hannon Library on campus. The Hannon Array consists of 24 solar panels connected together to send its output direct current electricity through a power conversion device (inverter) that feeds directly into the City of Ashland's 3-phase power grid, at 220 volts AC. This system has been faithfully producing its peak 6 kw since installation. http://www.sou.edu/sustainable/librarysolararray.html SOU installed our third solar photovoltaic system on our student union building in August 2013. The 32 kW system is the largest on the Ashland campus. The university is also recently installed two larger systems, 72 kW and 81 kW, on the recently completed LEED Gold residence halls. Generation of solar energy from one of these systems is not included in this report as it was not operational during the time frame covered in this report.

SOU's Dining Hall and McLoughlin Residence Hall each have solar hot water systems installed to augment the natural gas domestic water heating. The system on McLoughlin Hall consists of an array of 16 flat plate solar collectors mounted on the roof, facing due south with a tilt of approximately 15 degrees from horizontal. Each solar collector is 48"x122". Total solar collector absorber area is 597.3 square feet. Efficiency of the collectors is 60.7%. The collectors are piped together on a glycol loop piped to a heat exchanger. The system has two 500 gallon solar preheat storage tanks. The solar hot water system on the Dining Hall consists of an array of 8 flat plate solar collectors mounted on the roof, facing due south with a tilt of approximately 15 degrees from horizontal. Each solar collector is 48"x122". Total solar collector absorber area is 321.2 square feet. Efficiency of the collectors is 66.2%. The collectors are piped together on a glycol loop piped to a heat exchanger.

Through the student-initiated Green Fund, SOU formerly purchased RECs to offset 100% of the electricity consumed on campus and carbon offsets to offset 100% of the natural gas consumed on campus from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. The RECS and carbon offsets purchased by B-E-F for SOU were from Green-e Energy certified wind energy facilities located in North America. In 2013, students voted to modify use of the Green Fund to offset 100% of the university's water use and fund renewable energy projects on campus, discontinuing purchase of RECs and carbon offsets in an effort to make our efforts more localized.

SOU purchases power from the City of Ashland Municipal Utility, which purchases most of its power from the Bonneville Power Administration. The Utility also produces a small amount of local hydro power. The numbers above are those reported by BPA as their power mix. Other sources of power are not specified.

http://www.solar4rschools.org/schools/sou-stevenson-union http://www.solar4rschools.org/schools/sou-hannon-library http://www.solar4rschools.org/schools/sou-mcloughlin-residence-hall http://www.solar4rschools.org/schools/sou-shasta-residence-hall http://www.kdrv.com/sou-installs-solar-panels-on-roof/