Thanks to 300 days of sunshine a year, Denver is a prime location for the development of solar power—and The Denver Federal Center is taking full advantage. In fact, the Fed Center aims to become the nation’s most sustainable campus by 2020.

In addition to the existing Fed Center Solar Park, which provides 1.6 million kilowatt hours of power a year, the Fed Center has two additional solar installations in the works that will provide an additional 6 megawatts of power. Both installation projects are projects made possible by the U.S. General Services Administration’s Economic Recovery Act.

The projects are a joint venture of Centerre, a Colorado-based construction firm, and E Light Wind and Solar, Inc., and, when complete, will offset 15 percent of the Fed Center’s energy needs.

The first project, a roof-mounted grid-tied photovoltaic system, will replace the roofs of three Fed Center buildings with integrated PV systems or new roofs with PV panels. By reducing the electrical dependence of these three buildings, the Fed Center will see annual savings of $300,000.

“We expect the roof-mounted grid PV system to be complete in November of this year,” said GSA Assistant Project Manager Nicolas Retzlaff.

The second project is a 15-acre ground solar installation with an additional two acres installed on top of select carports in parking lots around the campus. The ground PV project will save an estimated $360,000 per year in electrical costs. Because of post-award setbacks such as additional environmental planning, landscaping, and a filed protest—that was denied—the ground project is only 5 percent complete to date. It should be up and running by 2011.

“When both projects are complete, we will have the largest solar capacity in Colorado,” said Retzlaff. “Region 8 of the GSA is fully committed to moving toward sustainability.”

Pictured: One of the solar arrays at the Denver Federal Center.