Plans are underway to expand the solar farm built in 2009 that provides some of the electricity used on the St. John’s campus. Best Power International received a grant from Xcel Energy’s renewable development fund to install solar panels to produce another 200 kilowatts at St. John’s.
While the existing solar panels track the sun as it moves across the sky, the new system will have fixed panels, said Dwight Jelle, president of Best Power. That will allow researchers to compare the two systems and see which performs better, he said. The existing solar farm has been producing more power than anticipated, Jelle said. He said the company hopes to build the new system this fall or 2015 at the latest.
In related news, after more than half a century of heating with coal, St. John’s University has made the switch to natural gas. After undergoing a master planning process for the university’s power house, St. John’s officials concluded it didn’t make sense to continue burning coal.
Read the full story by Kirsti Marohn in the St. Cloud Times >>
