A 500-kilowatt SunPower based solar power system has been installed on the roof of one of the historic buildings at Harvard University and is the first rooftop solar array for the University.
The solar power system will generate the equivalent of the amount of power required for 83 average Massachusetts homes each year and the output will offset the equivalent of 367 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Harvard put the project out to tender with a request for proposals in March 2009 and CarbonFree Technology led the winning bid, working in partnership with SunPower to design and install the system and provide operations and maintenance services.
The system features the SunPower T5 Solar Roof Tile, the solar industry’s first non-penetrating rooftop product that combines a high-efficiency SunPower solar panel, frame and mounting system into a single pre-engineered unit. Tilted at a five-degree angle, the T5 Roof Tile system approximately doubles the energy generated per square meter compared to systems that are mounted flat onto commercial rooftops according to SunPower.
The system is owned by Crimson Solar, LLC, and Harvard has committed to buy the power generated from the system, and the associated solar renewable energy certificates, for 25 years at a pre-determined rate, with no initial outlay required by Harvard University.
In 2007, Harvard University pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, inclusive of growth, 30 percent by 2016, with 2006 as the baseline year. University-wide, greenhouse gas reductions are around 5 percent so far, including growth.
In September last year, two 10 kilowatt wind turbines were commissioned at Harvard University, representing what was at the time the largest wind energy project on campus to date.
