U. of I. President Tim Killeen; Interim Chancellor Barb Wilson; Al Stratman, the executive director of Facilities and Services; and Karen Hasara, a U. of I. Board of Trustees member presided over the ribbon cutting ceremony Nov. 19 to commemorate the campus’ Solar Farm being connected to the university’s electrical distribution system a week earlier. The farm is expected to produce 7.86 million killowatt-hours per year or approximately 2 percent of the average electrical demand for the Urbana campus.
University and campus administrators, Facilities and Services staff members, Student Sustainability Committee representatives and project partners from Rockwell Financial Group and Phoenix Solar South Farms LLC attended the invitation-only ceremony.
“Sustainability was at the core of the land grant mission originally and it has to be at the very core going forward,” Killeen said. In 2008, the university signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment pledging to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible. Two years later, the Illinois Climate Action Plan was released as the Urbana campus action plan for achieving sustainability goals.
The Solar Farm “is part of our effort toward ensuring that the campus and the university are at the forefront of sustainable energy,” Wilson said.
The Solar Farm is the largest solar array installed on any Big Ten university campus.
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