Bowdoin College
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

In 2014 Bowdoin began purchasing electricity from a 1.2MW solar photovoltaic PPA that is installed on the Bowdoin campus that provides about 8% of Bowdoin's annual electricity usage. The PPA is for a twenty year term. The college did not purchase the RECs from these solar panels so can not claim any of the environmental benefit, although the college is proud to host this site, which was the largest solar project in the state of Maine at the time it was brought on line. Bowdoin has maintained RECs for the solar PV panels on the new Roux Center for the Environment, so can thus claim the full environmental benefit of the system. There are 70 panels which are estimated to produce 34,376 kWh annually.

Thorne Dining Hall, the second largest user of hot water on campus, has a solar hot water system that produces 338 MMBtu per year and another solar hot water system on the roof of the Schwartz Outdoor Leadership Center provides domestic hot water to the kitchen, restrooms and showers of the building (these MMBtus not included).

As part of a collaborative effort with four other colleges (Williams, Smith, Amherst and Hampshire) and Nextera Energy, Bowdoin has helped catalyze 22MW of solar PV in Farmington, Maine. If these credit worthy institutions had not come forward, the 22MW would not have been built. Bowdoin has contracted for 8 MWhs of the solar and the resulting RECs. The college anticipates the project will be on line by the end of 2019. This purchase is a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) that will account for roughly half of Bowdoin's annual electric load when it comes on line.

In the spring of 2018, as part of Bowdoin's effort to become carbon neutral, the campus purchased RECs to offset all remaining escope 2 (electricity) emissions, and carbon offsets to offset all remaining scope 1 and scope 3 emissions. Bowdoin signed a two year contract with Bonneville Environmental Foundation for enough wind RECs to offset all of Bowdoin's electricity purchases. The annual purchase amount is 17,771 RECS (17,771,000 kWh equivalent). One REC represents the environmental benefits of 1-megawatt hour (MWh) of renewable electricity generated and delivered to the power grid. By purchasing these products, we alone have the right to all associated claims about the environmental benefits it embodies. Bowdoin also has maintained RECs for the solar PV panels on the new Roux Center for the Environment. There are 70 panels which are estimated to produce 34,376 kWh annually.