Student-Designed Solar Installation on Campus Goes Live

Designed as part of an environmental studies class project, the photovoltaic power generation system on top of Gund Commons became operational this month.

By Ryan E. Smith
Date

Will Pritchard ’25, left, and Josh Bergman ’25 were present when the solar power system at Gund Commons was energized on Sept. 3.

With the flip of a switch, solar power began surging through Gund Commons this month, thanks to a student-designed project.

The rooftop installation was the fifth to be completed on campus with the help of students taking ENVS 104 (Solar Power Systems: Science, Policy and Practicum), a course whose approach to experiential learning has prepared numerous students for careers in the industry.

“Gund Commons is now a clean energy powerhouse serving its own electrical loads and those of nearby buildings with solar power,” said Jerry Kelly ’96, a former solar energy professional who teaches the class with Assistant Professor Eric Holdener. “All of Kenyon should be proud of our students’ great work, persistence and professional approach in getting us to this point.”

Solar panels on Gund Commons roof
The student-designed solar power system on the roof of Gund Commons became operational on Sept. 3.

Kelly and Holdener have been teaching “Solar Power Systems” since 2015. Their goal is not only to educate students about the science and business of renewable energy but to give them hands-on experience in the field. Each class proposes a detailed solar power system for a local site as they learn about how such systems are designed, installed and financed. More than a dozen of their designs have been installed on campus, at Village of Gambier facilities and at the homes of area residents.

“Our students take part in boots-on-the-ground field trips to local sites where we give them chances to assess the sites’ potential viability for a solar system installation,” Holdener said. “They learn how to use tools of the trade to make these assessments, and they provide reports of their findings. From what we’ve heard from our course alumni, these are the kinds of experiences that impress employers.”

The Gund Commons system can produce over 60 kilowatts to power the building or return energy to the grid if it is producing more than is needed. That’s more energy generated than the combined total of all the class’s previous solar projects on campus at the Kenyon Farm, the Village Inn, the Village Market and the Hoehn-Saric House. 

Originally designed in 2020, the project involving 166 solar modules faced unforeseen delays related to the pandemic and changes in safety and testing requirements. It was paid for by the College and installed by a company now known as Kokosing Solar, whose official design verified and supplemented the original student proposals. 

Opportunities to work on projects like these have helped numerous Kenyon students prepare for careers in the industry over the years. Jayne Gelman ’22, a renewable energy developer with BayWa r.e. Americas in Boston, credits “Solar Power Systems” with kickstarting her interest in the field.

“It was the most hands-on class I took at Kenyon, and I’m so grateful I took it. Before that class, I thought that renewable energy was a tech-y concept, completely unattainable for a liberal arts grad. That class introduced me to the vastness of the industry, and I was able to find my place in it from there.”

Jayne Gelman ’22

And she’s not alone, Kelly said. 

“We now have a bunch of students who have taken the course and gotten jobs in solar or in clean energy more generally,” Kelly said. “They’re getting a pretty good exposure to the world of what’s generally referred to as solar development. … A lot of them have been hired pretty much on the basis that they had this experience.”

One of those alumni is Zach Sawicki ’16, who talks to current students about his role in the industry as a utility-scale solar and storage developer.

“I loved Jerry and Eric’s solar energy class,” he said. “The course equipped me with the necessary practical experience, confidence and industry vocabulary to successfully land my first job after Kenyon. I now proudly have close to a decade of industry experience under my belt.“

Will Pritchard ’25, who took the solar power systems class last year, was excited to be present on Sept. 3 when the Gund Commons system became operational, even though he wasn’t involved in its design. 

“Seeing a student project come to fruition after so many years was very rewarding,” he said. 

Now a Brown Family Environmental Center postbaccalaureate fellow, his work in the class involved a larger-scale, ongoing design aimed at offsetting the power usage of the Lowry Center. That work, which will be continued by students this year, was an invaluable way of bridging the gap between theory and application, he said.

“Not only did we understand how solar arrays worked, but we also got to experience what was required to implement a real-world system.”