St. Lawrence College announced on October 22 that it will install rooftop photovoltaic systems on buildings in two different cities. Students taking courses at the Kingston and Brockville campuses will have first-hand looks at solar energy in action. Combined, the rooftops will become the largest solar installation at any Canadian post-secondary institution.
Ainsworth, Inc., an Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) company, will design and construct the new solar arrays. With more than seventy-five years of mechanical and electrical experience in the commercial, industrial, and institutional sectors, Ainsworth will install 250kW worth of solar panels on three buildings at the Kingston campus, and a single photovoltaic rooftop in Brockville with a capacity of 100kW.
According to Chris Whitaker, President and CEO of the school, “We are the first college to offer diplomas in Energy Systems Engineering and Wind Turbine Technician.” St. Lawrence College continues to “lead the way,” he adds, “by providing our students with a cutting-edge education and hands-on experience with real, operating, renewable energy systems.”
FIT, MicroFIT Create Green Training, Career Opportunities
St. Lawrence College will sell the solar energy it produces to the province under Ontario’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program. The FIT, and its companion program for smaller projects, the microFIT, pay producers of renewable energy high prices to feed power into the electrical grid. The school expects the Kingston and Brockville installations to earn $200,000 and $80,000 per year, respectively, over the twenty-year spans of the FIT contracts.
In addition to encouraging green energy production, the FIT and microFIT help to stimulate the local economy with requirements that participating projects use labour and materials acquired in Ontario. The programs’ incentives and requirements create manufacturing opportunities, bring foreign investment into the province, and increase enrollment in solar training courses.
Students of St. Lawrence College’s Energy Systems Engineering course in Kingston are among those working towards careers related to green energy. They will collect data from the photovoltaic installations in real time and learn about the effects on solar panel efficiency by varying installation angles, types of rooftops, geographic variables, and inverter technologies.
St. Lawrence College is a pioneer in green education and an example of what can be achieved when the government, educators, and businesses combine their efforts.
