New solar field under construction in West Windsor

The University has begun installation of the new solar photovoltaic panel field in West Windsor Township after clearing 27 acres of land and obtaining the necessary local, county and state permits and utility company approvals.

The 5.3-megawatt solar field will annually generate 8 million kilowatt-hours of energy and could eventually reduce the University’s carbon dioxide emissions by 3,090 metric tons every year, according to University estimates. This reduction will contribute to the University’s 2008 Sustainability Plan, which aims to bring its carbon dioxide emissions down to the 1990 levels by 2020.

The system was designed by SunPower Corporation, and will be funded and owned by Key Equipment Finance, a Colorado-based firm. Princeton University will host the field and lease the equipment from Key Equipment Finance for about eight years, after which the University will have the option to purchase it at fair market value.

Construction teams first mobilized on the site in early October. In December, they began removing trees, weeds and debris from the field’s soil, which was composed largely of sediment and waste that had been dredged from Lake Carnegie back in the 1970s. The natural matter collected from the site will be resold for composting and animal bedding. “The pleasing thing is, it’s all being reused, it’s not being land-filled or wasted,” said Ted Borer, the Princeton Energy Plant Manager.

Most recently, workers planted the first vertical support piers, which are the steel columns designed to hold up the photovoltaic array. Long beams called “torque tubes” will later be added to these piers, and some will be outfitted with bearings capable of rotation. Of the panels to be installed, 80 percent will be new “SunPower T0 Trackers,” which use a GPS device to follow the sun throughout the day and thus maximize energy absorption. The remaining 20 percent will be fixed in place. As of January 13, over 500 of the 4,000 piers had been installed.

The conduit that will carry power from the field to the campus has been placed under the Delaware & Raritan Canal and Lake Carnegie. A gravel pathway is being built around the site for maintenance vehicles. The University has also held a kick-off meeting with local utilities representatives.

Several dozen people from SunPower and specialty subcontractors are currently working on the site. The peak anticipated staff for the project will be between 80 and 90 people, Borer estimated. “All the labor is union labor,” he added.

The project’s completion has been scheduled for the summer of 2012. “They [SunPower] have a pretty ambitious schedule laid out in front of them, but so far we’re tracking it,” Borer said.

Though the prospect of using solar panels to generate energy for the University has long been on the minds on those in the facilities department, the project became financially possible in 2010 due to a federal grant and various incentives offered under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as well as the revenue-generating potential of New Jersey’s Solar Renewable Energy Certificate Program.

The West Windsor solar panel field will become the third major solar energy-producing site on campus, following the installations of solar panels on the Frick Chemistry Laboratory and the roof of the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium building.