Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

U Richmond Offsets 100% of Electricity with Solar

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 02/11/21

A Virginia institution is the latest school to cover all of its electricity needs with a more sustainable source. The University of Richmond (UR) has joined campuses in Colorado, Hawaii and Minnesota to match 100 percent of its electricity usage with solar power.

A solar array dubbed "Spider Solar" has 47,000 panels generating 41,000 megawatt hours of solar energy annually. Rather than using that power directly, the university uses Spider Solar to replenish the electric grid to offset its own campus usage.

U Richmond Offsets 100% of Electricity with Solar

Source: AES

The solar field began operating on Dec. 31, 2020, generating the equivalent of the electricity usage of 5,000 homes.

"The university pledged in 2015 to accelerate its transition to low-carbon energy while enhancing sustainable and resilient practices across our campus," said Director of Sustainability, Rob Andrejewski, in a statement. "With Spider Solar now online, UR's greenhouse gas emissions will be 57 percent below where they were in 2009, putting us in a great position to aim for carbon neutrality."

Spider Solar is located in Spotsylvania County, about 60 miles away from the university. It was built and is operated by sPower, owned by AES. The university maintains a purchase power agreement, in which the company manages the day-to-day operations of the array, and the institution agrees to pay a fixed price for the energy produced.

This arrangement, said Mark Detterick, the university's senior associate vice president of campus operations, makes the school "directly responsible for introducing more renewable energy onto the grid, while being able to better predict the university's utility expenses, all without the costs associated with owning or operating a large solar facility."

Spider Solar is UR's second power purchase agreement. The university constructed its first solar array in 2016 under a state pilot program. That project involved the installation of 749 solar panels on the campus' Center for Recreation and Wellness.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Miami University Approves New $242M Multipurpose Arena

    Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, recently announced that its Board of Trustees has approved construction of a new multipurpose arena at Cook Field, according to university news. The $242-million project will serve as a new centralized hub for student life and create space for economic development on campus.

  • Image courtesy of Kahler Slater

    UW–Madison Announces Completion of Morgridge Hall

    The University of Wisconsin–Madison recently announced that construction is complete on Morgridge Hall, a new academic building, according to a news release. The facility opened September 3 at the start of the fall semester, consolidating the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences into a single facility for the first time.

  • University of Kansas Breaks Ground on Entrepreneurship Hub

    The University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new KU Entrepreneurship Hub, according to university news. The Hub is part of the university’s School of Business and will include spaces for experiential learning and programming.

  • Stanford Completes Construction on Graduate School of Education Facility

    Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., recently announced the end of construction on a new home for its Graduate School of Education, according to a news release. The university partnered with McCarthy Building Companies on the 160,000-square-foot project, which involved two major renovations and one new construction effort.