This past Tuesday at U of T’s Athletic Centre, 100 new solar collector panels became functional and began supplying energy to run the facilities within the building. In peak sunshine months, the panels will generate enough energy to contribute approximately 25% of the heat used by the shower and laundry services, significantly reducing overall consumption of natural gas. This initiative is the biggest of its kind in the GTA and U of T believes the largest of its kind at a Canadian university.

Solar panels, commonly made of silicon or cadmium telluride “cells”, use light energy to generate electricity via the photovoltaic effect. When photons of light strike the solar panels, their energy is transferred to an electron within an atom in the cell. With its new found energy, the electron can escape its normal position within the atom and become part of a current in an electrical circuit. The solar panel has a built-in electric field with the voltage required to push the current through an external load -- such as a water heater or light bulb.

The reduction in natural gas use will result in fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions throughout the year. The annual reduction in GHG emissions will be the equivalent of taking 11 cars off the road and, simultaneously, the energy saved will be enough to heat 11 fully detached, average-sized Canadian homes.

Finally, although these renewable technologies come with an initial associated cost, in the long-term, these solar panels will quickly pay for themselves and become a considerable money saver for the university.

Moving forward, solar panel technology, now well past its infancy, needs to be embraced and gradually expanded upon at U of T, where there is no shortage of flat roofs on which to place them. Although there is a high cost of installation, there are avenues of subsidization for these projects; one-third of the AC solar panel initiative was funded by the Ontario Solar Thermal Heating Incentive and the federal ecoENERGY for Renewable Heat Incentive.

And if that isn’t enough motivation, Captain Obvious told me that renewable energy sources pay for themselves in the long-term! It seems so logical, just take the free energy, yet we continue to struggle with it.