SUNY-Buffalo Announces a Major Solar-Power Project

The State U. of New York at Buffalo will set up a seven-acre solar array to power student apartments.

Buffalo doesn’t necessarily bring to mind clear weather, but we are told that the city is the sunniest and driest place in the Northeast in the spring and summer. (Perhaps we’re thinking of a gray Buffalo in wintertime.) In any case, that window of fun in the sun has prompted the State University of New York to take on a renewable-energy project: the largest solar array in New York.

The $7-million project will set up 5,000 panels on seven acres of the university’s North Campus, to generate 1.1 megawatts, or enough power for 735 apartments. A story in The Buffalo News says that the panels will save the university $75,000 to $100,000 a year. (That means the panels will pay for themselves in 70 to 93 years. Do we have our math right?)

The New York Power Authority is paying for the project, which should be finished in 2010. The university, which is planning major growth in coming decades, has signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, and it will need to find more renewable-energy projects and energy-efficiency gains if it plans to meet the commitment’s goals. For now, at least, the project “commits us to a greener, more sustainable future,” said the university’s president, John B. Simpson.