Camosun College
IN-2: Innovation 2

With funding from President's Funds 2013 grants, Camosun College has installed a 4 KW Solar Photovoltaic (PV) array to offset the charging of electric vehicles, electric bikes/scooters and electric grounds keeping tools at the Interurban Campus. In 2013, two President's Funds proposals were submitted – one for an Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station and the other for solar charging of electric grounds keeping tools. The grants were approved on the understanding that the recipients work together to complete their projects. Along the way, the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) heard about the project and offered to provide additional funding if a four stall Ebike charging station could be added. With funding for an increased solar array size, the project has grown to include offsetting the power used by the interurban grounds keeping golf carts and battery powered hand tools. The energy provided by the array, which feeds power directly into Camosun's electrical grid, along with the energy consumed by the various charging stations is fully monitored. After a year of operation, the goal is to show that the sun's energy provides more energy than is required by all the charging stations. The array was installed by Electrical Apprentice students under the guidance of Home Energy Solutions, the solar array provider. The array's performance will be monitored by Electronics and Mechanical Engineering Technology students. In the last year, 4.86 MWh’s of energy was generated by the array, saving the college approximately $500 and displacing approximately 17,776 kg of GHG.