Case Study #1

On January 30, 2008, a small commercial grid-intertied ‘Generation Partners’ solar photovoltaic (PV) system was completed at the WKU ALIVE Center for Community Partnerships (1818 31-W Bypass). This system was a community milestone, being the first installation of its type in Bowling Green. It was set up as a community demonstration project and for research by WKU. The system is comprised of twelve (12) 165w modules from Sharp manufacturers, for a total of 1980w and is fixed-mounted at latitude off of horizontal. For a fully exposed site, capacity is about 6.5 kWhs per day, or 2400 kWhs per year, offsetting 2400-lbs of coal and about 6300-lbs of greenhouse gases. The TVA "Generation Partners" program purchases 100% of electricity produced at 15 cents per kWh, or almost twice what is paid to TVA for electricity used. The installation is a collaborative project of the WKU ALIVE Center and Facilities Management departments, BGGreen Partnership for a Sustainable Community, Bowling Green Municipal Utilities (BGMU,) Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA.) The system was installed by Sunbelievable Services of Berea, KY. Funds for the installation were provided by the WKU Ogden College of Science and Engineering Dean' s Office. Chief installer was Joshua Bills, from Sunbelievable Services in Berea, KY, who is also co-author of The Kentucky Solar Energy Guide (2006.)  Assistant installers included Phillip Martin, Dan Givens and Sam Avery.  Steve Peek was Chief Engineer on the project from BGMU.  The panels were contributed by Dr. Kaveh Khatir, Architecture and Manufacturing Sciences Associate Professor at WKU.

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