Temple University and Community Energy Build First Community-Driven Solar Project in Philly

Temple University has debuted a new solar panel system on campus.

The 4,500 SF, 63-kilowatt solar array was completed in December and is now the first community-driven and largest state-of-the-art community solar project in Philadelphia built without state subsidy.

The system, owned and operated by Community Energy, is installed on the roof of Edberg-Olson Hall, Temple’s main facility for it’s football program. The location was chosen in part because of the visibility from the university’s regional rail stop which is seen by thousands of commuters daily.

Kathleen Grady, director of Temple University’s Office of Sustainability said the university wanted to do a project to educate students about renewable power ever-since the Office of Sustainability was created in 2008, but the project had too high of a cost for the university to take on while trying to keep tuition costs low.

The 1,500 Philadelphia and southeastern Pennsylvania electrical customers (including the university) who signed up to have their electricity supplied by CEI at no additional cost made the project a reality.

“When Community Energy approached us with this new model we were able to finally do a solar project on campus that made financial sense,” Grady said.

Watch a time-lapse video of the project’s completion below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INkzdkIMZGY?list=UU8M8_YoImYUDBECPN8FdPuA&w=560&h=315]

(Image via Temple’s Office of Sustainability)