Release Date: March 11, 2010
Office of Mayor Julian Castro: 207-7083
City's solar-generation capacity takes massive leap forward with announcement of state grants
Mayor Julian Castro and representatives of UTSA and St. Philip's College announced more than $3 million in grants Thursday that will nearly triple the area's large-scale solar distributed energy generation capacity.
The grants from the Texas State Energy Conservation Office will fund solar panels at the city's Mission Verde Center at Cooper and at buildings on the campuses of the University of Texas at San Antonio and St. Philip’s College, one of the Alamo Colleges.
"This is a big step forward for sustainability in San Antonio," Mayor Castro said. "With these grants, we will multiply our solar energy production by several times as well as make real the value of renewable sources of energy to the community."
The grants will be distributed in the following manner:
*$430,000 to the Mission Verde Center at Cooper to provide 48 kw of solar generation capacity;
* $1.3 million to UTSA to install 152 kw of solar generation capacity;
* and, $2 million to St. Phillip's College to install 400 kw of solar generation capacity.
"This grant represents a tremendous opportunity for St. Philip's College," said President Adena Williams Loston. "The rooftop installation of solar panels will serve our college as a green laboratory."
"It will also serve as an essential component of our soon-to-be Center for Excellence in Science," she added. "It will produce energy for the college, and it will enhance our standing as an area leader in workforce education. Most importantly, we will engage our community in a component of our education."
Mauli Agrawal, the dean of UTSA's College of Engineering, also hailed the grant as a major step forward in both green job training and research.
"Energy and sustainability are two areas of focus that UTSA has identified as it marches toward Tier–1 status," Agrawal said. "It has already taken several concrete steps to become a leader in these areas including the creation of I-CARE, the Institute of Conventional, Alternate and Renewable Energy."
"And UTSA is committed to working closely with the San Antonio community to develop more clean technologies and train a workforce for green jobs," he said.