Solar at Southern Adventist University

Students and administrators at Southern Adventist University aim to go green—both environmentally and financially. According to a local news report, the campus will be installing over 800 solar panels, making it the second largrest photovoltaic array in the Chattanooga, Tennessee, area. 

The idea for the project came last year when students from the campus’s chapter of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) meet with the university’s board to talk about ways the campus could be more environmentally friendly and less dependent on traditional energy.

 

“The board of trustees approved it in concept,” said Gordon Bietz, university president, “if we could get a good return on investment.”

 

“We thought of several options,” said Karla Coupland, one of SIFE’s student leaders. “Other ideas wouldn’t work or weren’t as efficient and wanting to keep the natural beauty of the campus all led to solar. . . . In addition to this, we want to start a campaign to make students more aware of power consumption and costs. When they’re here they pay a flat fee and may not realize how much it will cost when they get out; so we want to help ease that transition as much as possible.”