FORT COLLINS – Colorado State University is one of the top four major public research universities for solar power, according to a report by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
AASHE also listed CSU as having two of the top 10 largest photovoltaic installations at a four-year university. Overall, the university ranked sixth among all public and private colleges and universities.
Colorado State hosts about 5,500 kilowatts of solar power on its campus, largely concentrated on a 30-acre site on the Foothills Campus in west Fort Collins. The plant annually produces about 8.5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, or the equivalent of enough power for about 1,000 homes.
“Colorado State is committed to building sustainability into our campus environment in everything from using recyclables in our dining halls to building a biomass boiler on our Foothills Campus,” said Amy Parsons, CSU’s vice president for operations.
CSU was the first major public research institution in Colorado to install a major solar facility. CSU also has five smaller photovoltaic installations on the main campus.
CSU completed one of the largest solar plants at a U.S. university in January 2011 in collaboration with renewable energy developer Sun Edison.
Via Northern Colorado Business Report