Since November 15, 2010, Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) is home to the largest solar deployment in Virginia. The 328 high-efficiency photovoltaic panels on EMU’s library roof in Harrisonburg, Va., have the capacity to generate 104.3 kilowatts of electricity. This is enough energy to power the equivalent of nine homes.
Solar fans can watch the photovoltaic panels perform live by visiting the tracking page provided by Southern Energy Management, the company that owns and services the panels. The page graphs the panel’s hourly output, shows how many kilowatts have been generated to date and counts carbon offsets, trees saved and barrels of oil not used.
At this writing, the panels have generated 27,619 kilowatt hours to date. In the past month, they’ve saved almost five barrels of oil, five trees and offset 6,862 pounds of carbon dioxide. A sunny yellow graph shows that the array began producing power between 7 and 8 a.m. this morning. Power spiked around 11 a.m., but now at 12:30 p.m., Harrisonburg seems to have hit a cloudy spell. Ohhhh, this is addictive!