4. Conclusions
According to the use case, UNL is currently working on their sustainability goals. With that in mind, our proposed systems would be a part of UNL’s commitment to renewable energy and continue the effort to reduce the campus Energy Index. Since 2004, UNL’s efforts have resulted in a 40% decrease in the campus Energy Use Index.
As shown in this section, we selected 12 buildings on the East Campus to use for solar designs. Each of these buildings provided large areas of high irradiance. As outlined in our Conceptual Design, we initially modeled all potential buildings on East Campus to compare irradiance and roof area. Along with the 12 optimal building roof designs, we designed a ground-mount system to be installed on the Agricultural Field and a small Solar Flower to be placed in front of Love Library to showcase the amount of green energy being produced for the University on a monitor that tracks the current output, 9 total yield, and CO2 avoidance. An example of this monitor is shown below in Figure 4. We were able to calculate the CO2 avoidance using the Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator from the EPA [2]. Using our calculated 31.35% energy offset and the total consumption for all UNL, we found the amount of energy displaced with our solar + storage system and used the EPA calculator to represent our CO2 avoidance over the course of a year.
Although our solar plan does not benefit the University’s financial interests directly, UNL is effectively paying a premium to meet sustainability goals and become a pioneer for green campuses in the future. The decision of our district to move towards a completely solar campus will attract students and investors as its clean energy offset is broadcast to visitors and alumni from around the world. In conclusion, UNL may not be saving money, but they will be saving on their carbon footprint in various forms, which will be shown on the proposed graphic to be included with the solar flower solution. Our next community engagement strategy references the iconic UNL phrase: “Go Big Red.” One of the most important aspects of UNL’s culture is their school and football team spirit. The phrase GBR is seen around campus and well-known by everyone in the UNL community: students, staff, faculty, and fans. We modified the phrase for our campaign to reflect their sustainability goals: “Go Big Green.” See Figure 5 below for a comparison of the current GBR logo and our updated GBG design.
With an extremely expensive photovoltaic project, it is important that the entire university is aware and supportive of the plan. This phrase, GBG, will engage the UNL community and capitalize on their school spirit mentality. We will provide t-shirts with the “Go Big Green” and create social media challenges with the hashtags #GBG and #GoBigGreen in which students will pose with the new solar flower and show off their additional sustainability efforts, such as using a reusable water bottle. There will be a winner for the most innovative submission.