The University of Delaware at Newark will soon benefit from the installation of a 850 kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic (PV) system that will be spread across three rooftops atop three buildings. The installation is being done by Standard Solar, Inc., and it will be jointly owned and operated by Standard and project financier, Perpetual Energy Systems LLC.

The PV arrays are being installed at the Delaware Field House, the David Nelson Athletic Complex, and at Clayton Hall. When completed, the array on the Field House will be the largest single rooftop installation in the state of Delaware.

This is first solar installation, which John Byrne, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy and a professor, called “an important step, which I hope will soon be followed by additional actions to meet the plan's goal of installing 6 megawatts of solar power on campus.”

According to a press release, the PV array will have more than 2,000 panels, which should generate about 1,035 kilowatt hours of electricity each year and cut the university’s carbon dioxide emissions by 1.8 million pounds annually. The university said that’s equivalent to “reducing the use of 93,363 gallons of gasoline each year.” The installation is part of the university’s efforts to reduce its emissions 20 percent by 2020.

The project is being financed by Perpetual Energy Systems through a power purchase agreement with the university and partly through the University of Delaware’s senior class gift, which the school said was earmarked solar initiatives on the campus. Under such arrangements, the project developer, in this case Standard and Perpetual, will own the project, and the university enters into a long-term contract to buy the electricity produced. The building owner will have the opportunity to buy the system outright, or can opt to just use the energy it produces. Beyond offering pollution-free power, these agreements also allow long-term energy pricing stability.

In a prepared statement, Newark mayor Vance Funk observed, “Having seen the University's solar program grow since the early 1970s, it is very exciting to see solar energy become an important part of our community.”