The faculty and students of the University of Central Florida have become more vocal in their interests and aspirations in the way of solar energy. They’ve long used environmentally-conscious alternatives to tradition energy use, but with the mounting attention being turned solar, they are hoping to make UCF a “greener” university.
UCF’s Florida Solar Energy Center, or FSEC, staffs somewhere around 140 individuals all year long, leading the university in new solar research and development of solar technologies. It’s the university’s solar energy center which has driven UCF’s enhancement of the campus economy and environment, and they have plans to shift dependency onto clean, renewable energy rather than more harmful and expensive fossil fuels.
In fact, Professor and Director of FSEC, James Fenton, made note in a student newspaper that one goal of their research and development is to get everyone on campus driving electric. He believes that if the campus could collect the electricity to fill the needs of more electric-car chargers, more people would be inclined to drive more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly cars. What’s more, the addition of solar collecting equipment could easily create massive drops in their annual utility budget.
However, one of the key factors preventing such expansions is the cost of solar panels. There has been a number of new developments in solar energy technologies in recent years, slowly chopping away at the overall cost of owning and installing panels, but they still aren’t considered cheap. While Fenton and most other solar advocates would vouch that the ultimate return on investment does come, it takes some time, and they’re having a hard time convincing some of the leading figures on campus.
Still, the drive and the appeal are both prevalent at UCF, and hopes are high that as the cost comes down, the interest will grow even more.
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