Upgrading the Williams College electrical system requires summer ditching.
Upgrading the Williams College electrical system requires summer ditching.
Tanja Srebotnjak, director of Williams College’s Zilkha Center for the Environment, told an audience of students and faculty in January that renewable energy makes sense as a way to combat climate change — and also economically. Williams is now going all in for electricity, especially electricity generated on campus by solar panels.
In addition to panels already operating, such as in connection with the ’62 Environmental Center, Williams has added panels on the Wachenheim Science Center and Garfield House. Panels soon will be placed on the ample roof of the new Multipurpose Recreational Center. According to a recent email from Srebotnjak, “Once the MRC array is operational, the college has installed just under 1 MW AC (megawatts alternating current) of solar PV (photovoltaic) capacity behind the meter.” That’s a lot of watts, a megawatt being 1 million watts. It will account for “6 to 7 percent of the college’s annual grid-imported electricity consumption,” Srebotnjak reports.
Although the panels are generating the electricity, they require a contract with National Grid because the utility must be able to supply that much power. Srebotnjak explains that solar projects that are currently in the works are using a previously executed interconnection service agreement. Future solar or other green energy will require new interconnection agreements “to ensure there is sufficient hosting capacity to integrate such systems safely and reliably.” That the local substation is nearing capacity might temporarily slow electrification.
She looks forward to participating in a “flexible interconnection” National Grid program, supported by other utilities and state governments, that “allows renewable energy and battery projects to connect to the electric grid faster and cheaper by using real-time digital controls to manage grid limits.”
Williams’ new boathouse on Lake Onota will have solar panels in front of the meter. The Wachenheim, Garfield and MRC solar arrays will be behind the meter. That means they will directly offset any power Williams draws from the grid. The boathouse panels will help green the grid but won’t reduce charges, such as for peak demand. Naturally, Srebotnjak prefers “behind the meter solar PV.”
A series of ditches around campus have been dug as part of upgrading the campus electrical system by more than three times to handle the college’s increasing need. Berkshire Gas also is digging in Main Streets, unrelated to the electrical work.
Williams is already carbon neutral, in part because of the contract the college shares with other institutions with a solar facility in Farmington, Maine. Its power feeds into the Maine grid, but Williams gets credit through renewable energy certificates.
The college has identified another 1 MW capacity of existing rooftop and new construction that will be solar ready, waiting on the substation. Srebotnjak believes that “our focus on energy efficiency, enhanced by renewables and energy management, will put us in a good position to not only reduce our carbon emissions over time but to do so with a smaller energy footprint overall and greater resilience. It won’t happen overnight, but I’m confident that staying the course will pay dividends in several ways.”
May it be so. At least, that’s how it looks from the White Oaks.
Lauren R. Stevens writes a regular environmental column for The Berkshire Eagle.
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