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It piqued our interest to read through News staff writer Temi Fadayomi's recent reporting that Alpena Community College is considering the installation of a solar array on ACC's campus.
College administrators and their board only are in the discussion stage of the project, with the whole thing contingent upon ACC obtaining a state grant to build the array.
However, college President Don MacMaster said the array could generate 1.8 megawatts of power for the college. Any power the college doesn't need could be sold to Alpena Power Co., MacMaster told his board.
That's a win. The college could go from being an energy consumer that pays for power to an energy producer that gets paid for power. That's a benefit to the college and to taxpayers and tuition-paying students.
And, MacMaster said, the college could use the solar array in its training of some of its students.
"The connection to our electrical programs is significant," MacMaster told the board. "There's no other place that has the package of electrical programs that we have."
That would be another win. Community colleges pride themselves on being responsive to the needs of their communities and the broader economy. Solar power will play a huge role in the future of the energy sector, and the chance for ACC students to train on a working array would be invaluable to their futures.
We have some outstanding questions: How much would the solar array cost to build? How much of that cost would be covered by the college versus the state grant? Where exactly would the solar array go, and how much space would it take up? Has the college considered the answer to that last question alongside its future construction needs? What if the college someday needs the space occupied by the solar array to build a new building or parking lot or training field for one of its programs? Does the solar array have any negative side effects for the broader community? Could the sun reflecting off the components of the array create visibility problems for passing motorists?
Those questions ought to be publicly answered before ACC ventures too far forward.
But we are intrigued by the proposal, and we'd like to see the college further explore that possibility.
(THE ALPENA NEWS)