The College will place solar panels on the roof of the Kiewit Computation Center today, following the recommendation of the students who took Environmental Studies 50 last winter.
Environmental Studies Professor Doug Bolger, who taught the class, said the solar panels will help increase awareness of alternative energy sources and will give students and professors the opportunity to do solar energy research.
Bolger said the overall project for the Environmental Studies 50 course was to perform an energy audit of campus buildings and to suggest technologies the College could employ to reduce energy consumption.
He said one suggestion was for the College to generate electricity using photovoltaic panels, "a rapidly advancing and efficient technology."
The solar panels can generate about 20 kilowatt hours of energy per day on a sunny day. Bolger said this is enough to power 30 personal computers for eight hours.
The project will cost the College about $60,000. Bolger said the U.S. Department of Energy and the New England Electric System Company will help pay more than half of the costs.
Assistant Director of Facilities Planning Jack Wilson said the energy generated from the panels will be added to the College's general electricity supply and will not be used to power a specific building.
He said the College is also "talking about some other potential installations -- perhaps building a photovoltaic unit on the organic farm."
David Robinson '96, co-chair of the Environmental Studies Division of the Dartmouth Outing Club, said he is already planning a research project involving the panels to find out how shadows from surrounding buildings affects solar energy production.
The College also plans to create a homepage on the World Wide Web that would include data on power output from the solar panels and general information about energy conservation and renewable energy sources, Bolger said.
