Published 9:00 am Wednesday, February 25, 2026
By Noemi Arellano-Summer
Oregon State University-Cascades will receive $1 million from the Oregon Department of Energy to help install solar panels on campus buildings.
Jarrod Penttila, associate director for capital planning and construction, said the university was excited to receive the funds after a long planning process.
“OSU started planning for this installation probably about a year ago, six months ago or so, and so we’ve set aside a little over $3 million for the installation of solar on all of our buildings, and this $1 million grant dramatically helps to make that more cost-effective,” he said.
OSU-Cascades has a net-zero energy goal and rooftop solar is a critical step toward doing so. That goal came out of community discussions on the campus’s long-range plan as far back as 2018.
Campus planners believe the solar panels will generate more than 1 million kilowatt hours of clean energy per year, according to a campus press release.
Along with the campus’s groundwater based geothermal exchange at Edward J. Ray Hall and the Student Success Center, solar panels will provide a large amount of the energy OSU-Cascades needs.
The geothermal exchange provides year-round heating and cooling for Ray Hall and the Student Success Center. As campus expands, the plan is to connect the system to other campus buildings.
“The geothermal system helps the campus run more efficiently and also helps it run basically on electricity, and so the two aren’t directly connected,” said Penttila. “The solar offsets the electricity use we get from the grid, and so it reduces our demand on the grid, especially at times when usually peak demand happens, kind of right around the heat of the day in the summertime.”
The solar projects will be installed later this year on the roofs of Tykeson Hall, Edward J. Ray Hall, Obsidian Hall, the Student Success Center, residence hall and the Little Kits Early Care and Education Center, according to the press release.
“We’re trying to illustrate some of the most efficient ways that you can heat and cool buildings cost effectively,” he said. “(Students are) learning about the systems we have and the way these systems work and helping to expand that knowledge.”
The solar panels may also help power lights off campus.
“During some of the peak demand days during the summer, we will have solar that will help to minimize our use of electricity from the grid,” he said. “At the same time, there can be things that we do with the exchange that actually make it so that we aren’t using very much electricity. And so, that solar from our campus will then feed into the grid and be kind of supporting the community at that point in time, because we won’t be using anywhere near where the actual production will be.”
Penttila expects installation to take place during the summer and the panels to be operational by fall. Funding was provided through the Oregon Energy Department’s community renewable energy grant program.
Noemi Arellano-Summer is schools, youth and families reporter at the Bulletin. She previously reported on homelessness and the 2020 MA eviction moratorium with the Howard Center of Investigative Journalism through Boston University. She was raised in Long Beach, California, where she started her journalism career reporting for her high school newspaper. In her free time, she can be found meandering through a bookstore or writing short stories.
She can be reached at noemi.arellano-summer@bendbulletin.com and 541-383-0325.

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