In 2004, Arizona State University installed it’s first photovoltaic (PV) solar energy system at its main campus in Tempe, Arizona. Since then, ASU has been making steady progress toward carbon neutrality.
The commitment starts at the top with University President Michael Crow, who is one of the founding backers of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. In late April, Crow told ASU News that he believes solar energy is, “a smart investment in that it will pay back in annual dividends to ASU and to Arizona…”
Staying true to this belief, ASU is taking on a brand-new, 17,000-panel solar energy installation, this time at its West campus in Phoenix, Arizona. Ten thousand solar panels will be installed in the form of a shade canopy over the top of three of the school’s parking lots. The other 7,000 panels will stand to the left of the parking lots in an open field. Poles will be punched into the ground to hold the panels up to the sun.
The new PV system is sure to gain national attention. According to Jason Scott, project manager for APS Energy Services, the company that will be installing ASU’s new system, the project will be “one of the largest parking canopy systems in the United States — definitely bragging rights.”
Solar Power Partners Inc. of Mill Valley, California will finance and operate the $34 million solar installation, which is expected to account for half of the campus’s energy needs. The energy will be sold to the university at a fixed rate under a 15-year power purchasing agreement (PPA). The rate at which ASU will buy the energy has not yet been disclosed.
I wish Mike Crow had as much concern for the faculty and staff at ASU has he allegedly does for the environment. He runs ASU like a dictatorship. He fires anyone who stands in his way. He craves the spotlight just like Joe Arpaio. To me they are one and the same. I wonder if he really cares about the environment at all. This is just another way for people to say look at me, I’m Mike Crow master of the universe.