In its first year of commercial operation, the university’s solar farm generated 7,284 megawatt-hours of clean, renewable energy for the campus, successfully meeting expectations. Located at the southwest corner of Windsor Road and First Street, Champaign, the solar farm reduced the campus carbon footprint by more than 6,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Under a 10-year power purchase agreement with Phoenix Solar South Farms LLC, the university acquires all of the power generated by the solar farm and all associated renewable energy credits and carbon credits. In its first year, the solar farm:
Supplied almost 14 percent of the campus electrical demand at noon on April 3, 2016. Delivered 900 MW of power to the campus grid in June 2016, the highest month of production. Frequently generated over 4 MW of power.
The Illinois Climate Action Plan, the Urbana campus’ strategic sustainability plan, set a goal of obtaining at least 120,000 MW hours of power per year from low-carbon sources by fiscal year 2020. With the solar farm’s electrical production and the university’s wind power arrangement with Rail Splitter Wind Farm LLC, the campus is one-fourth of the way toward meeting this goal.
More information on the solar farm’s energy production and its effect on the campus is available at http://go.illinois.edu/solar.
