Phillips Exeter Academy is home to the largest rooftop solar array of any school in New Hampshire. The ballasted rooftop array was recently installed by ReVision Energy on the academy's new, 84,574-square-foot field house in Exeter.
Generating electricity with sunshine will save the academy more than $2 million in energy costs over the life of the system and will offset the majority of the athletic facility's electric load. The array consists of 1,552 solar panels and is the largest in Unitil's utility service territory.
This large-scale array is a tangible example of the academy's commitment to sustainability, and it accelerates the state's clean energy transition. The array enables the athletic facility to control its energy costs and increase its energy independence by reducing the need to purchase grid electricity from fossil fuel power plants."
On an annual basis, the 535.44-kilowatt array will generate approximately 598,000-kilowatt hours of solar electricity. The average New Hampshire household uses 10,000-kilowatt hours of electricity per year, and the electricity produced by the array is enough to power 60 homes.
The solar power generated by the array is equivalent to offsetting 629,694 pounds of carbon pollution each year, which is equal to 700,060 miles driven by an average passenger car or 32,140 gallons of gas.
ReVision Energy collaborated with Harvey Construction Corporation on the field house modernization project. "The new field house at Phillips Exeter Academy is a textbook case for using technology and materials in creative and efficient ways to preserve the history of the campus while updating facilities central to student experience and energy efficiency," said Bill Stevens, president of Harvey Construction.
