UCalifornia, San Diego Installs Kyocera Solar Power System
Rady School One of the First Business Schools to Use Solar Panels on Primary Campus Building, Project Was Student-Driven
Source: KyoceraSolar.com / press release / Sept 24, 2007
http://www.kyocerasolar.com/news/news_detail.cfm?key=441
The University of California, San Diego’s Rady School of Management and Kyocera today inaugurated the 18 kilowatt Kyocera solar power system atop Otterson Hall, a new facility for the Rady School. The system will provide an additional power source for the school’s 50,000 square foot facility on the UC San Diego campus, which will minimize the school’s and the campus’ energy costs for decades to come. This student-driven project makes the Rady School one of the first business schools in the country to use solar panels on their main campus building.
The installation of the solar power system at the Rady School marks the second major solar installation on the UC San Diego campus and reflects the campus’s commitment to environmental conservation through utilizing renewable energy resources like solar energy. UC San Diego engineers have identified roof space on the campus for at least 500 kilowatts of solar power and are working to procure these systems in collaboration with industry partners like Kyocera.
“The Rady School and UC San Diego are committed to sustainability and we are proud to be one of the first business schools in the country to utilize solar panels on our campus,” said Rady School Dean Robert S. Sullivan. “This collaboration with Kyocera allows us to partner with a local company, using their innovations to lessen our environmental impact.”
The Rady School celebrated the opening of its new facility, Otterson Hall, in June. The building was designed with environmental sustainability in mind, using natural ventilation and energy efficient lighting, a natural complement to the solar power system. The rooftop Kyocera solar power system is composed of 144 Kyocera KC130TM modules and will produce roughly 25,000 kilowatt hours of clean, renewable energy annually. The system was installed by San Marcos-based Independent Energy Solutions (IES).
Rady MBA students in UC San Diego’s Net Impact chapter proposed and directed the Otterson solar project. Jay Brandeis, founder of Net Impact’s UCSD chapter, along with Rady Full-Time MBA 2007 classmates Jim Trauth and Aron Tremble, played key leadership roles.
“This is an exciting milestone for Rady, UC San Diego, industry and the business school community,” said Jay Brandeis. “Encouraging and implementing clean operating solutions that require fewer inputs and generate fewer harmful outputs, while carrying measurable economic benefit, are top priorities for the Rady School. We are thankful to Kyocera Solar and IES for partnering on this project and to university staff who helped make this possible.”
“We are pleased that UC San Diego and the Rady School of Management have shown such vision, leadership and environmental commitment with the use of a Kyocera solar system on its new facility,” said Tom Dyer, vice president of marketing and government affairs at Kyocera Solar, Inc.
Last year, UC San Diego partnered with Kyocera Solar to install a 12.8 kilowatt solar energy system on a lab rooftop at the Jacobs School of Engineering. An LED sign that accompanies the installation shows, in real time, how much energy is being generated, as well as the corresponding reduction in greenhouse gases. The Rady system will also have an LED display mounted on the wall at Otterson Hall, supported by state of the art technology.