Our home building ENR2 is now generating renewable solar energy!

As of around 9:30 Wednesday morning Jan 13th 2021, we are officially generating renewable power on the roof of the Environment and Natural Resources 2 (ENR2) building!  The attached photo is the view of the rooftop photovoltaics array. Because the PV array only offsets a portion of our average energy use for the building, all of this renewable energy is actually offsetting our consumption from the TEP grid.  This project will also include growing plants beneath the panels as part of our agrivoltaics initiave. Next steps are working with local providers to generate an "extensive" mix of native wildflower annuals and perennial seeds for dispersal.  The UA Machine Shop is creating several plot markers for research purposes (places we can monitor plant germination rates, survival, abundances, carbon and water fluxes, etc.). This is a wide open experimental project, and we are encouraging anyone and everyone to utilize the space to examine barriers and opportunities for PV+Greenroof infrastructure and the associated ecosystem services.