Academy’s solar array performing better than anticipated

Colorado Springs Business Journal

The United States Air Force Academy says it foray into solar power has been more successful than it anticipated.
 
After a year of operation, the Academy says it’s received 7 and a half percent more power than anticipated from its 6-megawatt solar array project.
 
The academy installed 18,888 solar panels were installed along 41 acres on the Academy’s southeast corner and started operation July 1, 2011. Since then, the project has provided 12.5 million kilowatt hours in power. Original estimates were that it would provide 11.6 million kilowatt hours in power. 

“The project is finished and now we’re reaping the benefits from it,” said Russell Hume, a mechanical engineer with the Academy’s Directorate of Installations. “We’re making sure it produces within a reasonable measure of what we anticipated and we’re above what we predicted so that’s good news.”
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