2010.06.01 – Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College installing 39 solar panels
from Asheville Citizen-Times. http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100601/NEWS/306010027
by Josh Boatwright
ASHEVILLE — Officials at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College say a new installation of 39 solar thermal panels will do much more than save money on power.
“These panels, once installed, are going to serve as live labs so that instructors who are teaching solar hot water technology will be able to utilize these facilities where we have this technology,” said Max Queen, vice president of risk management and operations.
The college has entered into a contract with FLS Energy Inc. to install the panels on four campus buildings to provide power for about 1,885 gallons of water a day.
FLS will own, maintain and operate the solar thermal system during a 10-year-lease agreement, covering the cost of installation while selling the energy back to the college at about half the current rate of natural gas.
A-B Tech is expected to save $22,000 over the next decade, avoiding anticipated increases in energy prices, Queen said.
A U.S. Department of Energy grant secured by U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler will also pay for $25,000 of the college’s power bill to FLS, he said.
Those funds are part of two grants totaling more than $1 million that are paying for the college to create a new associate’s degree in sustainability that will start this fall, develop renewable energy training programs and other materials to assist workers going into green industries.
A majority of the solar thermal collectors will go up at A-B Tech’s main campus on the Magnolia and Birch buildings, which house the culinary and cosmetology programs, the largest consumers of hot water.
On the Enka Campus, Fernihurst and Blue Ridge Food Ventures will get panels.
FLS will begin installation this spring, and the project should be finished by the end of the year.
The company has installed 30 large solar energy systems across the state.
FLS communications director Jonanna Malcom said many schools and universities have taken an interest in solar energy to educate students on sustainability.
Without having to pay the upfront cost of installing the system, the savings on hot water are also a big draw, she said.
“We like to say in 2020 wouldn’t you love to be paying gas prices you were paying in 2010?” she said.
