A new solar farm has gone online at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond.
WKYT-TV reports that the solar array will enable the university to generate about 450,000 kilowatt-hours a year, which is the equivalent of enough energy to power roughly 40 homes for a year.
The solar power will help provide a portion of clean energy to the campus, and it will provide a learning opportunity for professors and students.
“Something like a solar farm where you take light and then convert it into usable electricity using some very specific atoms and molecules, the chemistry of that is really important and something that a lot of people have worked hard to understand,” said Judy Jenkins, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Eastern Kentucky. “It puts a sort of observable face on the theory and the concepts that we teach in class.”
Eventually, the university hopes to put a display on campus that shows just how much solar energy is being produced in real-time to help spark conversation across the county about renewable energy.
The new solar farm, along with the existing solar panels around campus means that the university now has the largest solar capabilities of any public college in Kentucky.
