VIRGINIA BEACH — When the sun shines most flowers simply grow and look pretty.
But the new solar SmartFlower at Virginia Wesleyan University will use the sun to make power.
Every morning at sunrise the SmartFlower will automatically unfold itself and a dual-axis system will allow the modular fan-shaped panels to follow the sun across the sky throughout the day – always maintaining the optimal angle for gathering sunlight.
The system generates 40 percent more energy than a traditional fixed solar panel.
VWU held a ribbon cutting on Aug. 24, unveiling its new photovoltaic system and making it only the second college campus in the United States to have one.
“With our campus situated at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and within a few miles of the Atlantic Ocean, we have a direct investment in the future of our natural environment and the systems that sustain us,” said VWU President Scott D. Miller, who also serves as chairman of the Climate Leadership Steering Committee, which is the chief oversight body of the President’s Climate Leadership Commitments and is responsible for advising on its policy and direction.
Maynard Schaus, VWU associate provost and professor of biology, said the SmartFlower indicates that the power produced is the equivalent of a 4kW (kilowatt) system.
“It has the panels of a 2.5kW system, but because of the increased efficiency (because it is always facing the sun), it produces the same power as a 4kW system,” he said.
Put another way, each one produces enough to power about half of the power consumed by a typical American home.
“Because the amount of sunlight varies (across the nation), in our region it is expected to generate around 5.3 kW, because the mid-Atlantic gets more sun than your average location,” he added.
But the SmartFlower isn’t just meant to look pretty and make power, said Stephanie Smaglo, assistant vice president of marketing and communications for VWU.
“We see the SmartFlower as a teaching and learning curricular tool for our students,” she said.
As part of their environmental sciences courses (for example, Energy and Environment and the soon-to-be-offered Topics in Sustainability) students will work with the SmartFlower, looking at things like how much power it is producing and comparing their measurements to the school’s fixed-angle solar panels, deciding how much more efficient the SmartFlower is and whether it or the traditional fixed-angle solar panels are more cost effective.
Virginia Wesleyan was recently recognized by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, receiving the foundation’s 2018’s Conservationist of the Year award in recognition of the school’s Greer Environmental Sciences Center and VWU’s vision and dedication to educating the region’s next generation of environmental leaders.
The GESC also achieved LEED Gold Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council in January, and VWU advanced to the top tier Model Level status in the Elizabeth River Project’s River Star Business program.
Smaglo also said VWU has also been regularly selected by The Princeton Review as one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the U.S. and Canada.
“We look forward to identifying additional initiatives that conserve energy, promote environmental health, and offer research and teaching opportunities, as we have this summer with the environmental experiences for local students,” Miller said.
