The Denver Federal Center is working toward its goal of becoming the most green campus in the United States by 2020 with a new 7-megawatt solar installation nearing completion.

The new solar array, when added to an existing 1.2-megawatt solar installation completed in 2007, will provide the campus with 15 percent of its total energy needs, said federal center spokeswoman Sally Mayberry.

All together, the 8.2 megawatts of solar electricity would be enough to power 1,000 average American homes.

The completion of the new solar installation will make the Denver Federal Center the greenest facility managed by the General Service Administration, Mayberry said.

The GSA manages all federal buildings not established on military bases throughout the country.

The new photovoltaic panels at the Denver Federal Center also combine with a solar domestic hot water heating system that was installed at two of the campus buildings in 2000 and 2001, according to GSA promotional materials.

“We feel strongly that Colorado is the ideal place to aggressively pursue sustainability,” Mayberry said.

The state boasts 300 days a year of sunshine, moderate temperatures and competitive solar incentives.

With the National Renewable Energy Laboratory located nearby in Golden, Colo., and a healthy supply of solar companies to turn to for service, the Denver campus seemed like an obvious choice of the GSA campuses to lead the charge toward sustainability and energy independence.

“While the solar is the most visible and most easily digested thing we’ve done,” Mayberry said, “we’ve actually done a lot to improve sustainability.”

The federal center has been on the cutting edge of several green movements within the GSA, she said. And it has made significant strides toward greening its 4 million square foot campus and educating its more than 6,200 employees on how to make greener decisions.

Among some of the improvements, the federal center has made retrofitting the boiler system and implementing a policy to reduce its energy consumption by 4 percent in 2008 and by 3 percent every year thereafter through 2015.

Beyond measures to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions at the facility, the federal center has made big efforts to help employees make a difference, Mayberry said.

The facility also encourages recycling by removing the requirement to sort it out and has even started encouraging employees to bring recycling from home. It has replaced several of its work vehicles with zero-emission electric vehicles and encourages employees to carpool. The federal center also encourages employees to work from home one day a week if they can in order to avoid the vehicle emissions from that day of commuting.

Image courtesy of www.solarserver.com.