Solar station will power Student Center at New Mexico State University
ASSOCIATED PRESS /December 27, 2006
Source: Albuquerque Tribune
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2006/dec/27/solar-station-will-power-center/
LAS CRUCES — New Mexico State University plans to build a combination solar power generation station and parking structure early next year, using the energy to help power the school’s Student Health Center. The NMSU Institute for Energy and the Environment and College of Engineering are finalizing the design. Built on the main campus in Las Cruces, the target date for completing the structure is early 2007.
An artist’s rendering shows a long, carport-like structure, with solar panels on top and room for about a dozen vehicles in its shade. The university said the structure will be the first non-research, energy production photovoltaic array on campus and the second-largest such system in New Mexico. The largest solar-powered system is the Power Company of New Mexico Solar Facility in Algodones, north of Albuquerque.
“This type of photovoltaic system operates by converting available solar energy into the type of electric energy we use every day in our homes and businesses,” said Corey Asbill, an engineer at the Southwest Technology Department Institute, which is co-principal investigator of the project. The university noted that the sun shines an average of 350 days a year in Las Cruces. A solar-powered system can produce enough electricity during five to seven hours of sunlight to last 24 hours. Excess electric energy can be stored in batteries or sent to the utility grid during the day to offset later consumption at night.
The parking structure will be built next to the Student Health Center. Solar energy will be used to light the parking structure and provide about 10 percent of the electrical needs of the center. The solar power generation station will consist of 18 kilowatts of photovoltaic panels mounted on top of the structure. It can generate 600 kilowatts of electricity – enough energy to power almost five typical American households for one year. Besides saving the university money, the system also will eliminate the production of more than 16 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, Asbill said. The reduction will result from the fact that vehicles parked in the shaded structure will remain cooler and require less power from the vehicle to run air conditioners shortly after startup.