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    Bucknell University completes pollinator-friendly Solar project on PA campus

    Oct. 10, 2022
    It will also include the plantation of pollinator-friendly vegetation between the panels for attracting bees, butterflies and other species that contribute to ensuring future food security.The project will supply 7% of the University's electricity
    Image credit Bucknell University
    Bucknell Solar 634458039378f

    Bucknell University and Encore Renewable Energy have completed a 1.76 peak MW solar array installation on the university campus.

    The array will come online in the coming weeks at the school’s campus in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

    Comprising south-facing panels tilted at 25 to 30 degrees on 7 acres of land, the project will have an agricultural fence for safety. It will also include the plantation of pollinator-friendly vegetation between the panels for attracting bees, butterflies and other species that contribute to ensuring future food security.

    The project will supply 7% of the University's electricity requirements and contribute to achieving its goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.

    "Bucknell has been actively seeking solar opportunities in an effort to achieve goals found in the University's sustainability plan," Bucknell President John Bravman says. "We are pleased to be partnering with Encore and Greenbacker on this project, which will be a model for other organizations of how mid-scale solar power can expand cost-effective renewable energy in Pennsylvania."

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    Additionally, the project will provide opportunity for renewable-energy focused teaching and research. It will also generate property tax revenues for the East Buffalo Township and provide the university with price certainty for energy.

    "Completing this solar array has been a long process, requiring the efforts of numerous people," said Jim Knight, Bucknell Project Manager and East BuffaloTownship Supervisor, "The clean, renewable energy it contributes to the grid will benefit both the University and the local community. It also provides a great opportunity for student education and research in this rapidly expanding field."

    The private school, founded in 1846, sits on more than 400 acres and educates about 3,600 undergraduate and graduate students.

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.