Prof. Victor Donnay & Students Present Solar Energy Proposal to Haverford Town
Haverford Township may soon be using solar panels to power several of its facilities, and Bi-Co students and Professor of Mathematics Victor Donnay have played a key role in making that move to renewable energy a possibility.
With support from 魅影直播鈥檚 Summer Science Research Program, Donnay and students Liwei Yang 鈥21 and Johnluca Fenton (HC 鈥21) worked with Haverford township residents Joy Baxter, Jen Leith, and Dave Foster on a solar panel installation proposal that was presented to the Haverford Township Board of Commissioners at a September working meeting.
Since that meeting, the Board has moved forward to explore possible approaches to fund the installation of panels at various locations. The final decision about funding the project will happen as the overall township budget is finalized in the coming months.
The presentation included plans for panels to be installed on the Haverford Community Recreation and Environmental Center (CREC), the township鈥檚 skating rink, several of the buildings at the township facilities yard on Hilltop Road, and at the Haverford township municipal complex. Any final decision about panel placement will depend on a number of factors.
Liwei was responsible for constructing and refining the financial models presented to the township.
鈥淚 started by sorting out the important data we needed, such as the area of the roof and estimated solar system size from our requests for proposal. Then, I began to build the model on an Excel spreadsheet from very simple equations to estimating more detailed information, including annual revenue from selling electricity and solar credits, tax incentives available, return of investment (ROI), and possible municipal bond options,鈥 says Liwei.
The project grew out of the Climate Change 360掳 Donnay was part of during the spring 2020 semester. Due to COVID-19, the participants weren鈥檛 able to go to Freiburg Germany as originally planned, but they were able to engage with people there through webinars.
鈥淲e learned that a lot (more than 50 percent) of renewable energy projects in Germany have been funded by citizen coops,鈥 says Donnay. 鈥淭hat is such a different approach than in the U.S., and we were intrigued.鈥
For their final project in the 360掳, John Luca and Samantha Van Cott 鈥20, along with Jeremy Akin (HC 鈥20) and Sophia McConnell 鈥20, who were in Donnay鈥檚 Praxis Independent Study seminar on sustainability, researched the solar potential of the township buildings and possible financial arrangements. They presented their findings to the township鈥檚 Environmental Advisory Committee in late spring.
The presentation was well received, and Donnay, who is a resident of Haverford Township, decided to continue the project with Liwei and Johnluca.
鈥淚t has been exciting working with the Climate Change 360掳 class and my co-faculty in the program, Professor Carol Hager from Political Science and Bob Dostal from Philosophy, to learn about the cutting-edge work being done around climate change in Germany and then seeing how we might adapt their approaches to the different context we face in Pennsylvania and the United States,鈥 says Donnay.