Solar Panel Systems at Catholic University Help Students Apply Classroom Instruction to the Real World

Daubman has chosen to focus her electrical engineering studies on alternative energy. She envisions some day filling the shoes of someone like Standard Solar Project Manager C. J. Colavito, who visited with students between installation milestones. 
 
"This is the coolest thing I've seen," Daubman said. "Classroom instruction is one thing; seeing it applied in real life really helps me understand how organizations can go solar," said the Massapequa, NY, native.
 
Standard Solar, the Mid-Atlantic region's largest designer and installer of solar electric systems, this week completed the installation of the solar arrays at Catholic University, which is now the largest solar photovoltaic system in the metro Washington, DC, area in terms of electricity produced. The university signed a long-term agreement with Washington Gas Energy Services to purchase electricity generated by the system. 
 
"As climate leaders from around the world take stock of the climate meetings in Copenhagen, it is fitting the University and Washington Gas Energy Services are 'walking the talk' about sustainability," said Scott Wiater, Standard Solar President. "We look forward to helping other colleges and universities connect what's going on in the classroom to what we can help their schools achieve on many rooftops all over campus," Wiater added. 
 
From the initial phases of the installation, Catholic University has incorporated teaching moments into its new alternative energy curriculum. Under the guidance of associate professor Scott A. Mathews, the School of Engineering will continue to conduct tours to the top of the Flather Hall dormitory to see how the panels and related equipment generate electricity. "To have students see a real installation is a very valuable teaching experience," Mathews said.
 
Another of Mathews' students, Christopher Pellegrinelli, a junior, was able to select the new Alternative Energy track for his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering just in the nick of time to meet the prerequisites and graduate within four years of his first semester.
 
"To actually see the panels up close definitely had an impact on me," said Pellegrinelli, who hails from Clinton, NJ. "I am now very interested in a career in renewable energy not just for the dividends it can pay me personally but for the world my generation is inheriting."
 
The four arrays consist of 1,088 3-by-6-foot panels on the roofs of the Raymond A. DuFour Athletic Center, the academic building Aquinas Hall, and Gibbons Hall and Flather Hall dormitories. It will produce about 340,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year and result in 294 fewer tons of carbon dioxide being emitted annually. The avoided emissions will be the equivalent of reducing the use of 30,300 gallons of gasoline in 2010.
 
The solar energy produced will supply about 10% of the electricity needed to meet Washington, DC's renewable electricity requirement in 2010. The District's Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008 calls for a growing contribution from solar energy annually through 2020. 
 
About Standard Solar
Standard Solar is a full-service developer, integrator and installer of solar electric systems for academic, commercial, government and residential customers throughout Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. It serves more than 400 customers throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and has created more than 50 green jobs since the summer 2008. For more information, visit www.standardsolar.com.
 
About The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America, located near the heart of Washington, D.C., is unique as the national university of the Catholic Church in America. Founded in 1887 and chartered by Congress, the university opened as a graduate and research institution. Undergraduate programs were introduced in 1904. Today the private and coeducational campus has approximately 6,750 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in 12 schools of architecture and planning, arts and sciences, canon law, engineering, law, library and information science, music, nursing, philosophy, professional studies, social service, and theology and religious studies. For more information, visit www.cua.edu.
 
Pictures of the completed solar arrays can be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=354242&id=269017730720&l=fb2de28cc2

For more information, contact Jim Pierobon, 240-479-1517; jim.pierobon [at]standardsolar.com