Bowdoin College’s 48 flat plate solar hot water collectors will provide more than half of the hot water used annually at their Thorne Dining Hall

With the installation of 48 flat plate solar hot water collectors, ReVision recently completed a solar hot water system that will provide more than half of the hot water used at Bowdoin College’s Thorne Dining Hall.

For Bowdoin College, who seeks to become carbon neutral by 2020, the savings of over 90,000 lbs of C02 emissions per year is an attractive benefit on top of the clean energy heating.

The Portland Press Herald recently ran a story lauding Bowdoin’s efforts:

The [carbon neutrality] program is based on a conviction that the planet is threatened by man-made climate change and that college campuses can take a leadership role in helping to stabilize the atmosphere.

… The first step in becoming carbon neutral is defining a starting point, a carbon footprint. Schools tally their heating, gasoline and power bills. They conduct inventories and use verifiable assumptions and calculations to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions for a given date.

Bowdoin determined that the school released 24,000 tons of carbon dioxide in 2008. The biggest sources came from electricity use, 44 percent, followed by heating and vehicles, 42 percent. The rest came largely from employee commuting, transmission line losses and travel.

… Beyond changing technology, Bowdoin also wants to use its educational mandate to change behavior. To meet the 2020 goal, it says, everyone on campus must share an awareness of carbon neutrality. That means developing energy-saving habits, such as shutting down computers and turning off lights.

The 48 flat plate solar hot water collectors will produce over 584,000,000 BTUs of thermal energy each year, or a savings of roughly 8,800 therms of natural gas annually. In the summertime it will mean significantly reduced runtime of a boiler dedicated specifically to Thorne Dining Hall, while in the winter the hot water supply is assisted with a central campus boiler that also provides space heat.

Possibly as exciting as the energy savings itself is the way that Bowdoin is creating fun, interactive tools for analyzing energy use and develop a culture of students, faculty, and staff who are energy conscious.

Check out this Flash-based energy production/analysis tool:

The transition to a clean energy economy is as much about changing our own attitudes towards energy as it is getting serious about fossil fuel alternatives. We’re thrilled to see Bowdoin College leading the way!

More Photos from our Schools/Nonprofits Photo Gallery:

Two kilowatts of solar electric panels are lighting up Fryeburg Academy thanks to a system recently installed by ReVision.

The Conway Daily Sun reported how the project came to be:

The genesis for this project began with the students in the class of 2009, led by Logan Cline, who launched the first year’s efforts to raise funds while also raising community awareness of the need to conserve energy on campus.

This was followed in 2010 by senior class president Kenedi Hall, who also approached TransCanada Energy for a significant grant to augment their efforts. Together, over $10,000 was raised to fund the initial project, and fund-raising is continuing to add more panels at a future date …

The system is designed both as an energy producer and ongoing teaching tool. Located in the academy’s dedicated science facility, students will be able to monitor and learn about the system as part of the day-to-day curriculum.

The 2KW system is expected to produce over 2,829 kWh of clean electricity each year, offsetting more than 3,500 lbs of C02 emissions!

From our Schools and Nonprofits Solar Photo Gallery:

See more installations in our Solar Projects Map

The 8.2kw photovoltaic system at Greely High School will offset more than 14,000 pounds of C02 emissions each year

Greely High School students are giving solid proof that committed young people can make a difference.

Part of that difference? Making a 8.2kw grid tied solar electric array on the school’s roof a reality.

The Forecaster reports:

The Global Awareness Club … recently raised almost $50,000 for the purchase and installation of 36 solar energy panels at the school… The panels could save School Administrative District 51 about $150 a month in energy cost, or an annual savings of more than $1,800.

The savings would come from 11,428 kwh of renewable energy a year, and would prevent nearly 15,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere each year.

Seeing how much teenagers can achieve is rewarding for [club member Katie] Longo and her fellow club members. “You kind of say to yourself, oh, if I put my mind to it I can do a whole bunch,” she said. “But now … every week, you’re getting together with people and you’re actually seeing a project through and seeing its effect on the community that you live in.”

We applaud the efforts of this committed group of students. It has been an honor to work with numerous students over the years as they pursue efforts to secure grants and financing for solar projects on their schools.

See more examples:

• Solar on Winthrop High School
• Solar on Falmouth High School
• Solar on Yarmouth High School
• Solar on Bangor High School
• Solar on Gray-New Gloucester High School

ReVision has commissioned our latest educational solar project – a 15.4kw grid-tied solar electric array installed on Winthrop High School, a system that will offset roughly 28,149lbs. of CO2 emissions annually.

The project, which was funded in large part thanks to an Efficiency Maine Block Grant, will save the school more than $3,000 a year for several decades.

Carl Swanson, a retired electrician and Winthrop Green Committee member who helped oversee the project, said this of the work:

[ReVision has] very knowledgeable, clever, capable workers who seem to know their stuff. Even though they are electricians they have had to learn the intricacies of solar power, which I can see is quite a field all its own. I have developed a great admiration for their work, having watched them work for the past 2 weeks. [This is] a first-rate job that will last many years that we can be proud of.

The system was also featured in the Kennebec Journal and on the Winthrop town website.

As with all educational installations, the system has been outfitted with a data monitoring system so that students can learn how the system works and monitor usage historically and in real-time.

From our Schools and Nonprofits Solar Photo Gallery:

See more installations in our Solar Projects Map

A little over a month ago, WABI (CBS affiliate in Bangor, Maine) featured a story on The Weatherbee School in Hampden, Maine, where a group of students dubbed the “Green Team” helped win the grant from the Earth Day Network to install a 2.3kw solar electric system on the roof of the school.

Here’s WABI’s coverage of the student green group:

Installation of the system was completed just last week, and the system has enjoyed beautiful sunshine since!

This solar electric array will offset an estimate 2,1000 lbs of C02 emissions each year. The system offers data monitoring so that Weatherbee School’s Green Team can observe how weather affects performance.

This solar electric system will offset nearly 15,000 lbs of C02 emissions each year. Thomas College will use the system as an educational tool in the community as well as enjoying energy savings.

Last week ReVision completed installation of a new 8.28kw solar electric system on Thomas College in Waterville, Maine. The system will produce roughly 11,170 kilowatt hours of clean electricity each year, saving roughly $1,600 each year and offseting more than 14,700 lbs. of CO2 annually.

Directing the project on behalf of Thomas College was Chris Rhoda, a ReVision Energy customer who happens to have solar electric and solar hot water installed on his home! We featured his family in our blog last year.

In addition to saving money and reducing emissions, Thomas College hopes to use the system as a springboard for sharing information about renewable energy to the Kennebec Valley area, and plans to develop an interactive website. The website will include background about the project, technical information, and system output data that will be available to the public.

According to Rhoda, “It is important to demonstrate for our community our [Thomas College's] long history of environmental stewardship. This project is just the beginning as other projects are planned that will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and provide lower cost options for our campus. For us, solar and other newer energy sources are great complements to buildings that are well insulated, lighting systems that are energy efficient, responsible heating and cooling… it is all part of a bigger picture.”

The project was made possible in part by a grant from Efficiency Maine, which awarded a $50,000 grant to the college for the grid-tied PV solar power panel installation.

More information about the system is available in Thomas College’s press release.

From our Schools and Nonprofits Solar Photo Gallery:

See more installations in our Solar Projects Map

Nicknamed “Green Bean,” this new energy efficient Habitat for Humanity home boasts an R66 roof and R25 wall system.

A few weeks ago ReVision staffers Josh Baston and Geoff Sparrow helped with our second Habitat for Humanity project.

They installed and vented a 95% efficient condensing gas boiler for a new home that will house a single mother and child. These boilers achieve this high rate of efficiency by condensing exhaust gases as water vapor and recovering additional heat from them.

The home is nicknamed “Green Bean” by Habitat for Humanity, as it represents the 5th home in their green building efforts and was originally owned by LL Bean.

LL Bean found they needed to expand their parking lot to where the house was located, and rather than demolishing it they donated the house along with some funds to Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat took the house to its new location, and started greening the 1930s-era house in earnest.

Using a product called Nailbase, Habitat achieved an amazing R66 rating in the roof, and built up the walls to R25. The house is now so tight that they needed to install an HRV! The gas boiler that ReVision installed will be used for heating and domestic hot water.

ReVision’s first Habitat for Humanity project was a solar hot water system for a LEED home, installed in Portland. See the blog archives for a write-up or see more project photos.

From our Schools and Nonprofits Solar Photo Gallery:

See more installations in our Solar Projects Map

This 10.2KW solar electric system will generate enough energy to power two ordinary homes

A Northern Forecaster article titled “Let the Sun Shine” featured a recent solar electric project we completed for Falmouth High School.

The solar power system is comprised of a 10.2 kw CSI solar array using 2 Sunny Boy 5000US inverters and a sunny web box for online data monitoring.

This clean, renewable energy system will generate an estimated 14,000KW/year, enough energy to power two ordinary homes, and offsetting nearly 5 tons of C02 emissions!

As we mentioned in our writeup for the Freeport Library solar project, online data monitoring is a powerful tool for teaching students and the public about the power of solar.

It’s not only fun to see how a system is performing in real-time, but very educational. It shows that these systems perform reliably, today!

Students can also see how changes in weather and season affect solar performance (did you know that Maine’s solar potential is a 1/3 better than the world-leader, Germany?)

This project was funded by Efficiency Maine’s Renewable Resource Fund.

From our Schools and Nonprofits Solar Photo Gallery:

See more installations in our Solar Projects Map