Challenge

Windward Community College (WCC), located in Kāne´ohe, Hawaii, is a public community college and part of the University of Hawaii system. The administration wanted to transition to renewable energy to reduce operational costs and contribute to the state’s climate action goal to become 100% renewably powered by 2045.

Solution

To reduce the campus’ carbon footprint the UH system installed a 1.4MW carport system owned and operated by Pacific Current.

General Contractor (GC) services were managed by Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) in conjunction with SunPower Corporation which provided the major system components including PV modules.

Sunspear Energy with its joint venture construction partner PLS Power was selected as a subcontractor, construction managed and performed solar mechanical and electrical installation of SunPower PV modules in 3 parking lot areas.

Benefits

The elegantly designed solar carports provide shaded parking for 250 vehicles while generating 1.87 megawatt hours (MWh) of clean energy per year. Together with energy efficiency measures, going solar will offset 70% of the campus’ electricity use in addition to removing 33,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from Hawaii’s environment.

Quick Facts

Windward Community College