by Shane Henson — May 21, 2012—Multinational solar manufacturer SolarWorld was recently contracted to make the Lawrenceville School, a National Historic Landmark boarding school in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, a 21st century model of sustainability through the installation of 6.1 megawatts of high-performance solar panels. Through the installation, says SolarWorld, the school will be able to generate 90 percent of its own power.
The sprawling photovoltaic system, ground-mounted on 30 acres of school-owned farm land, features 24,934 SolarWorld solar panels, manufactured at the company’s U.S. headquarters in Hillsboro, Oregon, and mounted on single-axis trackers to maximize energy production. The array is designed to produce approximately 9,264,000 kilowatt hours of solar electricity each year. And, as The Lawrenceville School solar farm is also home to nearly 900,000 resident honey bees, nourished by a special wildflower mixture planted among and around the solar panels, SolarWorld has shown that its installations can be both extremely energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
The project was developed by TurtleEnergy of Linden, New Jersey. It was purchased in 2011 by KDC Solar of Bedminster, New Jersey, which completed the development and constructed the project. KDC Solar leased the land for the project from the school and owns and maintains all of the solar equipment. Through a power purchase agreement, the Lawrenceville School will buy electricity produced by the array over the next two decades.
The solar farm is a pivotal element of the school’s Green Campus Initiative, a holistic approach to sustainability that focuses on campus energy, materials, land and water use, applying methods that promote ecological literacy and involve the community outside of the school.
“A solar installation of this magnitude serves as an inspirational reminder to the Lawrenceville School’s students and the surrounding community that we have the technology and ingenuity to solve our planet’s most pressing environmental challenges,” said Kevin Kilkelly, president of SolarWorld Americas. “By securing the school’s energy rates for years to come, the system represents a sound financial investment as well.”
