Mississippi State University’s new landscape architecture building is the most recent site of a bank of solar power cells, which in conjunction with other innovative technologies, makes it the greenest academic building in the South.
The canopy of solar electic cells, completed in December, will generate about 26,300 kilowatts of electricity per year. The system was built to double as a canopy to cover a sidewalk between the landscape architecture building and the Ammerman-Hernsberger Pilot Food Processing Lab.
MSU president Charles Lee said at the dedication ceremony Friday: “This innovative, sustainable facility not only provides green power to our community, but also offers a useful learning tool for our students interested in alternative energy sourcs. We are excited to partner with TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) in demonstrating the benefits and feasiblity of renewable energy resources.”
The MSU site is the 15th such site in a network of others throughout the Tennessee Valley and the second in North Misissippi that are using the sun to produce clean energy. The solar panels are a part of photovoltaic system which use modules in the form of flat panels mounted on rooftops and canopies, or integrated into the building materials themselves such as the shingles on the roof of a home or building. When rays of sunshine strike the panels, they cause electrons inside the panels to produce an electric current which is then added to the Starkville Electric Deptartment distribution system and into the Tennessee Valley Authority power grid.
TVA chairman and 1977 MSU graduate Glenn McCulloug, Jr. said, “The green power program demonstrates how TVA, our distributor partners and the environmental comunity are working together to give the people of the Tennessee Valley an option to choose power generated from renewable resources.”
TVA not only offers solar power as an option through its “Green Power Switch” program, but it also uses wind and methane gas to provide energy to customers.