1. Executive Summary
1.1 SITE LOCATION
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At the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL), solar installations are ideal on two campuses: City Campus and East Campus. City Campus is the heart of the University and hosts buildings such as the Love Library, seen in Figure 1.
The East Campus hosts more buildings including research centers focusing on plant and agricultural studies, as seen in Figure 2. The East Campus is accompanied by a large agricultural research plot where there are grassy fields along with sections for crop growth. The final use case specifically calls attention to the Animal Sciences Complex, which holds a pre-built solar system and highly valuable research equipment.
Each location presented TU Bright with unique opportunities for implementing solar energy. UNL’s “Big Plan” Master Plan, the use case profile provided by the competition, and the Environment, Sustainability, and Resilience Master Plan outline some of the university’s sustainability goals. Our proposal capitalizes on these goals by providing UNL with a unique solar energy design and implementation strategy.
1.2. PROPOSED PV SYSTEMS
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We focused on a particular solution for each campus: a rooftop system for the East Campus, a ground mount system for the Agricultural Field, and a “green bling” system for the City Campus. Each of these proposed systems aligns with the goals and environment of each campus. The East Campus has a variety of stable buildings with high irradiance profiles. The Agricultural Field presents a flat land, ideal for a ground mount system. The City Campus is the central hub of the university, perfect for a solution to display their commitment to sustainability.
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Our final solar proposal is composed of 14 individual designs totaling 4,935 kW (4.9 MW) DC, with a large contribution (1.5 MW) coming from the ground mount Agricultural Field solution. Section 3.1 includes a table listing the location, sizing, and annual production for each individual solar design. It was found that a fixed-tilt system of 10 degrees and a 180-degree azimuthal angle was the most efficient for each rooftop design based on the district’s location and shading profile along with building orientations and design iterations.
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1.3. BATTERY SYSTEM
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We modeled two battery systems for the University – a 500 kWh storage system for the Animal Science Complex and a 1000 kWh storage system for the rest of the East Campus.
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For the Animal Science Complex (ASC), the focus of our battery selection was geared towards the updated battery storage challenge. The critical loads housed at ASC sustain about $2,000,000 worth of inventory. With these critical loads consisting of 30% of the Animal Science Complex consumption, we wanted to design a system that would support these loads in the event of an outage and not compromise our IRR hurdle rate.
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We designed another battery storage system to service the remaining buildings on East Campus. These storage solutions were modeled with the help of out mentor at 127 Energy and Energy Toolbase, a solar proposal program.
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1.4. Pricing
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We created a Power Purchase Agreement for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln outlining our photovoltaic and battery solution. Due to the very low utility charge UNL currently pays, it is nearly impossible to create a competitive PPA rate with a positive Net Present Value. With a PPA rate of $0087/kWh, we achieved a project IRR of 7.59% and a NPV of customer savings of negative $3.8 million. Section 3.3 of the Project Proposal outlines the details of our particular PPA agreement.