Flexible solar
By Melissa Rigney Baxter • Jun 1st, 2010 • Category: Setting the Foundation
Dr. Michael Burke (foreground), president of Milwaukee Area Technical College, chats with visitors at a May 5 groundbreaking event for the solar education farm. (Photos by Corey Hengen)
An education may be priceless to some, but downtown Milwaukee real estate comes with a very set cost.
Johnson Controls Inc. and Milwaukee Area Technical College had to weigh the value of both when deciding whether to build a $6.9 million solar education farm in the city. The urban property was convenient for MATC students and created more opportunities, but it required the dedication of downtown property.
“Tying up valuable urban real estate for years with solar projects is unrealistic,” said Mike Sargeant, vice president of finance at MATC.
Visitors walk up to the site of a planned $6.9 million solar education farm in Milwaukee. Milwaukee Area Technical College and Johnson Controls Inc. hosted a groundbreaking May 5 at 810 E. Capitol Drive, where the facility will eventually be located.
Finding no solution in past examples, Johnson and MATC forged ahead with a first-of-its-kind structure: a building that can be disassembled and reassembled, allowing greater flexibility of location. Building components also can be repositioned on the site as new elements are added.
The plan lets builders work on the project away from the 32-acre property at 810 E. Capitol Drive where MATC plans to place the project when it is completed in August.
“An urban setting creates tremendously different opportunities and challenges,” Sargeant said.
“Conceptually, you think of a solar farm in the desert where it doesn’t interfere with development, but then the power is out in the desert, not where the people are.”
For Johnson Controls, the project involved innovation, said Don Albinger, vice president of Global Energy and Sustainability Operations for the Glendale-based company. It was a challenge Johnson Controls was happy to accept, he said.
“There’s a great need for energy engineers across the U.S. and in the world,” Albinger said. “We’re trying to continually add to our bench strength.”
The building features eight configurations of 2,590 photovoltaic panels from four different manufacturers to maximize student learning opportunities.
A man examines one of the solar panels that will be incorporated into a new solar education farm Johnson Controls Inc., Glendale, and Milwaukee Area Technical College are creating in Milwaukee.
While the farm’s main purpose is education, the energy captured also will be used to operate a Milwaukee Public Television transmitter on-site, creating the first energy-neutral public television transmitter in the country. MATC estimates the farm will create an energy cost savings of $70,300 in its first year of operation.
Sargeant said the project is a natural outgrowth of the college’s focus on preparing students for green jobs.
Energy education is often part of other curriculums, Albinger said, but not always a main focus, so helping further the education for workers is crucial.
“Developing future leaders and practitioners is critical to the continued growth of renewable energy technology,” he said.
The building’s flexibility makes it easily adaptable to new technologies that will crop up in the expanding field of solar power generation.
“It’s a rapid innovation growth market,” Albinger said. “If you are going to educate the energy engineers of the future, you need the best and greatest technology.”
Besides serving as an integral part of green and sustainable energy education at MATC, the farm also will be used by such educational partners as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Marquette University, Milwaukee School of Engineering and Concordia University. Also, kindergarten through 12th grade teachers and students can visit the site in person or virtually to learn more about solar technology.
“The No. 1 priority is how it could be geared toward education,” Albinger said. “It’s exciting to us because part of our mission as a company and in our group is around education.”
![[Print]](http://wibuilder.com/wp-content/plugins/dmc_sociable_toolbar/print.png)
![[Email]](http://wibuilder.com/wp-content/plugins/dmc_sociable_toolbar/email_2.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://wibuilder.com/wp-content/plugins/dmc_sociable_toolbar/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://wibuilder.com/wp-content/plugins/dmc_sociable_toolbar/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://wibuilder.com/wp-content/plugins/dmc_sociable_toolbar/facebook.png)
Melissa Rigney Baxter is a freelance writer who lives in Waukesha with her husband, three rowdy boys and a dog named Champ. A Hoosier by birth, Baxter and her family have lived in Wisconsin since 2002. She is a graduate of Hanover College in Indiana.
Email this author | All posts by Melissa Rigney Baxter
[...] Read more in Wisconsin Builder. Submit your comments below. [...]
[...] Recent Environmental Protection Agency rulings increase contractor exposure to environmental claims. Setting the Foundation [...]
I’m glad to see that this project is designed to be easily moved, I have been under a 1000′ tower with ice falling off of it, and I was not comfortable even inside a building designed to protect the television transmitter from ice. I’m wondering how the panels will hold up. Kudos for powering a TV station with solar!