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The University of Central Florida, one of the largest universities in the nation, is known for many things: it’s close proximity to Disney, a diverse and inclusive environment, high research activity, and being extremely inventive. In fact, in the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges 2016 guide rankings, UCF was ranked as one of the nation’s “Most Innovative” universities.
This classification is nothing to scoff at and there’s a group of seniors from the university who are proving that achieving innovation at UCF is the only thing that’s not changing.
Earlier this week, students from the UCF College of Engineering and Computer Science launched a huge project that combines both science and environmentalism. They created, of all things, a floating solar farm.
Why floating, you might ask? It all goes back to the university’s climate action plan. Currently, UCF has a timeline in effect to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 17% by 2020 and 42% by 2030. By 2050, the university wants to be fully climate neutral.
UCF’s sustainability team has long been looking to switch to solar power, a completely clean and sustainable way to harness power and save on energy costs. However, in order to install a roof-based solar system large enough to generate the same amount of power, the university would have had to do extensive and expensive retrofitting on most of their rooftops.
Instead of wasting money renovating roofs, David Norvell, assistant vice president of sustainability initiatives at UCF, decided to challenge the students. Opening it up to the young men and women in the Engineering and Computer Science College, Norvell let the students know that the project was a kind of test run for future solar ventures. “The primary purpose of this project is to conserve land and reach UCF’s commitment to become climate neutral by 2050,” he notes.
The students didn’t disappoint. They created a 20-panel solar farm that floats on one of UCF’s retention ponds, the system (a 5-kilowatt prototype) creates enough energy for an average single-family home. It currently feeds into the campus power grid, which allows the university to test the technology and keep track of energy production. If it performs well, UCF very well might make the switch to solar. In fact, the sustainability team is already talking about upgrading the farm to a 900-kilowatt prototype, capable of harnessing enough energy to fully compensate for the energy used by the Bright House Networks Stadium.
The students’ project is certainly unique, but having solar panels in places other than your roof isn’t totally uncommon. For instance, here at Superior Solar, we’ve installed a fair amount of panels on yards, vehicles, … even metal sculptures! But floating PV panels are new to the solar community and present new and exciting challenges for both installers and manufacturers. The UCF senior’s floating solar farm project is certainly rocking the not-so-metaphorical boat in the solar industry and presents a new and creative way to access solar energy.
If you’re interested in innovating and upgrading your home to a solar powered home, call or contact us today. We’d love to help you initiate some exciting change by making the switch to solar.
