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A sunny YSU forecast
Solar panels to be installed on Moser Hall in clean-energy effort
By GRACE WYLER
youngstown
Despite cloud cover Tues- day morning, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Dr. David Sweet, the outgoing Youngstown State University president, announced that YSU will install a 10,000 square-foot solar-panel array on the roof of Moser Hall, the home of YSU’s engineering programs.
The solar array demonstrates YSU’s continued commitment to innovation in clean-energy technology and sustainability, Brown said at a news conference, where he and Sweet were joined by Mayor Jay Williams and representatives from the Ohio Environmental Council.
“This is absolutely a template for what we need to do in other places in the state and around the country,” Brown said.
The solar array, which should be installed by early fall, is the first of its kind at YSU and one of the largest of its kind in Northeast Ohio, the senator added.
The project will be funded by federal and state grants awarded to Carbon Vision, a Cleveland-based renewable-energy developer. Carbon Vision will work with Youngstown’s Northern States Metals, which makes the solar flex rack, a mounting system for solar arrays.
The university will pay Carbon Vision for the energy generated from the solar panels.
The project shows how public-private partnerships can strengthen Ohio’s role at the forefront of clean-energy technology, Brown said.
The solar-array project is the latest step in the university’s ongoing efforts to improve energy efficiency, Sweet said.
The solar array could save the university $15,000 to $20,000 in energy costs over the next few years, he added.
YSU recently committed $10 million to energy-efficiency measures, including lighting efficiency, steam trap and insulation improvements and more-efficient chillers.
The result will be a 20 percent reduction in campus energy consumption. The university projects a $13 million return on its investment over the next 10 years.
Williams commended the partnership between the university, local businesses and the federal government on developing alternative-energy projects that will help reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
The recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico “shows that we, as a country, must become less dependent on these carbon-based fuels,” Williams said.
The solar-array project and similar clean-energy initiatives help to put YSU and the Mahoning Valley at the center of advanced energy development, Williams said.
Brown also used the news conference to outline his Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology, or IMPACT, Act. The bill would establish a $30 billion loan fund to support manufacturers that improve energy efficiency or expand domestic clean-energy manufacturing operations.
The bill also would increase the federal share of funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the federal-state initiative that gives support to small and midsized manufacturers. Under Brown’s proposed legislation, the federal government would increase its MEP funding by 50 percent.