Across the country, colleges and universities are working to meet sustainability goals and make their campuses greener. In Vermont, Middlebury College recently joined project partners to cut the ribbon on a five-megawatt solar array that will meet 40% of the school’s total electricity needs.

The solar array is one of the largest in Vermont with 15,348 solar panels mounted on single-axis trackers that follow the sun east to west throughout the day—efficiently providing renewable energy to the college.

“It has been a truly cooperative effort to make the solar array fully energized and ready to provide renewable clean energy to the college,” said Middlebury College President Laurie L. Patton, noting that Middlebury’s students played an important role in bringing the project to fruition, through a collaboration in support of climate justice.

Located about two miles from the Middlebury campus, the solar array was developed and constructed by Encore Renewable Energy and is now owned and operated by Greenbacker Renewable Energy Co., an independent power producer and investment manager. Middlebury, Encore, and utility Green Mountain Power (GMP) formed an agreement that allows the college to purchase the power and retain the energy credits produced by the solar array.

The project moves Middlebury closer to meeting the climate goals in its Energy2028 initiative, which in part calls for the use of 100% renewable energy by 2028. The solar energy produced comprises about 40% of the college’s needs for electricity. The other 60% comes from the college’s biomass plant, other local solar energy sites, and GMP’s power grid, which is 100% carbon free and 68% renewable.

Also part of the project, South Street Storage—a battery energy storage system constructed next to the solar array—will provide the ability to store excess energy that might otherwise be lost in the middle of the day when electricity demand is lower and the sun is brightest.

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