GameChange Pour-In-Place™ Ballasted Ground System Leads the Solar Revolution at Colby College in Waterville, ME
NEW YORK, – August 30, 2017 – GameChange Solar announced today that the Pour-in Place™ Ballasted Ground System at Colby College in Maine will support the school’s climate friendly practices along with powering 3,000 local homes and small businesses. The system was awarded as one of the Top Solar Mounting Products by Solar Power World in 2016 and is the fastest installing ballasted ground system with self-leveling technology.
Teresa Zhao, Director of Business Development at GameChange Solar, stated: “Providing the solar system for Colby College furthers our mission to repower the planet with clean solar energy and supports the school’s commitment to sustainability. Our hope is that we will inspire their students to join us in the greatest revolution in electricity to drive the cost of solar down.”
POUR-IN-PLACE™
BALLASTED GROUND SYSTEM
Fastest Installing Ballasted Ground System with Self-Leveling Technology
Patent pending protected system with self-leveling technology: 68% faster install than precast
Industry’s longest spans and fewest foundations: as few as 190 per MW
Substantial labor savings by eliminating moving and shimming heavy, precast blocks
Patent pending articulating purlin connections to navigate up to 15% terrain slopes
Supports all poly, glass and thin film modules
Integrated grounding and wire management
Available in both 1 and 2 panels up in portrait
Landfill solar racking leader
Base bracket hoops attach to posts, enable more than 7 inches total vertical adjustment to handle north-south terrain slopes
20 men install 1.64MW per week using pump truck, 1.31MW per week using bobcats with pouring buckets
“Colby takes a holistic approach,” said Mina Amundsen, assistant vice president for facilities and campus planning. “We are always looking for the next way to promote sustainable practices.”
The project, undertaken in collaboration with NRG Energy, Inc., is located less than one mile from campus on a large, easily accessible, south-facing space to maximize the project’s capacity for power production. Approximately 5,300 solar panels will be installed to produce 2.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year.
This solar array is the latest in a series of sustainable energy projects implemented by the College. Colby already has a photovoltaic energy system on the roof of the Schair-Swenson-Watson Alumni Center that generates around 10 percent of its electricity from a steam plant on campus.
The biomass plant, booted up in 2012, saves a million gallons of oil annually by burning locally sourced forestry scraps to produce heat. Additionally, 15 of Colby’s spaces are LEED certified, and Colby is committed to seeking LEED certification—which indicates commitment to human and environmental health in its design and construction—on all new building projects.
Amundsen said Colby’s commitment to the environment includes not only sustainable energy, but also sustainable water, materials, waste, and consumption. Colby was only the fourth college or university in the country to become carbon neutral when it reached that milestone about two years ahead of schedule.
For more than a decade, Colby students have intensively studied environmental practices on campus and participated in sustainability projects; the campus’ first greenhouse gas inventory became an honors thesis in 2007.
The solar array provides another valuable learning opportunity for students, who will be able to study the system itself and the environment around it.
Source: gamechangesolar
