The Catholic University of America (CUA) had 40 hectares of undeveloped land on the West Campus in Washington, DC, and instead of building a new entrance to the school as it originally planned, it is now home to the largest community project in the capital.
The facilities of the Catholic University of America can be seen above the trees along the community’s community project. The 7.5 MW project is just across the street of Harewood Road from the campus. Standard solar energy
It is rare, not to mention the fact that any country is untouched by the construction in a city like DC. But the Catholic Church, and by extension CUA, has more property than most organizations.
“I think we are the largest landowner in DC, apart from the federal government, which is part of the reason why we could develop a 25-hectare solar array on the spot,” said Gabrielle Choate, director of the Sustainability of the campus for CUA.
This 7.5-MW Zonne-Array covers part of the 40-hectare plot on the western campus of CUA, left with the remaining country to heritage trees and a tree nursery. The project was developed by Standard solar energyWho had worked with CUA between 2009 and 2012 on a series of arrays on the roof and a carport on solar energy.
“The university has already benefited from many net measuring options on their other buildings … So this was a way for them to build on their earlier obligations,” said Chuck Vondrehle, senior project manager at Standard Solar.
The more than century-century university hired a standard solar sun at the end of 2020, and for the following year the developer collaborated with the university, the city and neighborhood committees to design and approve the community project of the community.
This community sun project came online in June 2024 and Standard Solar Leasing the country for the next 20 years, but the developer models his projects for a 35-year operational lifespan. The Array can host around 1,100 subscribers and is open to residents of all eight departments in DC CUA is subscribed to 12% of the total production of the array.
“They could have sold the country, which is super valuable in every urban area. They could have redeveloped it in mansions or even academic buildings, and they still retain that right or choice on the road, because this is an interim use in the next 20 years, and 20 years is a short time for the life of a university,” Finnty said.
The West -Campusarray is hidden on three sides by its natural environment and has no direct neighbors. Prior to construction, the site was a mix of open land covered with wild bushes and remains. The land of slopes to the south and was somewhat assessed to accommodate the solar array on the south.
Some trees had to be removed to build the system, but many were donated to the district department of the urban forestry department of transport to be milled and given to regional schools and risky youth programs for student projects and building infrastructure. Another part of that wood was mulched and used on the community garden and hiking trails of CUA. The remaining trees were considered important for the site, so installers who controlled poles, gave a wide berth of roots of heritage trees.
A native seed harvest from pollinators was sown on the site of the Solar Project Community at the Catholic University of America. For the next 20 years, this Array will offer the credits for renewable energy consumption for the inhabitants of the university and DC. Standard solar energy
The Array is composed of Flexrack by Qcells Fixed Tilt Series Racking, CPS 275-KW String-Omwriters and Znshine Solar 540-W solar modules. Solar panels were installed at a tilt of 20 ° and placed far enough away from the trees to prevent shadow. The electronic components of the array were placed in the shade instead.
The ecological condition of that country will improve if a native pollinator’s seed crop will be grown on the plot in the coming years. Local beekeepers have already placed beehives at the university to also strengthen that biomass.
During the development, new fiber -optical communication lines, transformers and utility feeder cables were replaced and upgraded for the net to receive the new capacity of this community project. Standard Solar had to design the Array with two separate schedule points, because of the 3-MWAC Interconnection limit for community solar projects in DC
“We maximized the project size to match some of the public policy restrictions for the community programs per interconnection and also worked together with the existing capacities of the network line with the local utility,” said John Finnerty, director of business development at Standard Solar.
Although it is difficult to recognize the array on campus, students have access to the monitoring software and production data for academic purposes, and standard solar energy regularly keeps guided tours on the project site.
The university was founded in 1887 and currently has a student body of 5,000, with 12 schools and 53 buildings spread over 176 hectares. CUA founded its campus office in 2022, which spear initiatives led by the call from Pope Francis to tackle climate change. CUA has ordered a solar project that the Greater DC community serves – a community with it for 138 years.
“I am really proud of the university for it. I mean, there may be many applications of the country, so it is really great that we have decided to relocate the needle on renewable energy in the district, within the nation,” Choate said. “I don’t know any other universities in the area that have something like that.”