Krista Corner Havre Daily News kcorner@havredailynews.com
A cold-weather installation of solar panels will mean less utility expenses for Montana State University- Northern. Trygve "Spike" Magelssen stood in the frigid temps just outside Brockmann Center at MSU-N Thursday as workers began the installation of 16 solar panels. Magelssen said Independent Power Systems out of Bozeman contacted him last year around this time and told him about a grant offered by NorthWestern Energy and asked if the college would be interested. "Of course I said yes," he said. Magelssen applied for and received a grant worth $38,808 for the solar-powered system. "I hope this is a precursor for things to come,"Magelssen added. "Maybe in the future students at Northern will be able to work on other projects like bio-diesel or something with NASA." Engineer for Northwestern Energy John Campbell said the system at MSU-N is unique. "That particular system is going to be pole mounted with a tracker," he said. "Most of the systems are rigid on the rooftop and they face the south. (All) use an inverter to convert DC power to AC power." Magelssen said the tracker system is 35 percent more efficient than the roof-top system usually utilized. Students of the Carpentry Department of the College of Technical Sciences assisted IPS by laying the eight yards of concrete which holds the pole in place. Magelssen said the tracker on the solar power device will track the sun Both horizontally and vertically. "It follows the sun just like a sunflower," he said. Sixteen solar panels, lined up on two rows of eight atop a pole between Brockmann Center and the gymnasium, will supply about 320 volts of power to Brockmann, Magelssen said. He added if Brockmann wasn't such a big building and used so much power there might be a surplus of power and that NorthWestern Energy would buy a portion of that back. Campbell said, this buy-back is reflected as a credit on the customer's bill. "A lot of times, customers will see either a zero or negative balance," he said, referring to when consumers get their bills. Campbell said the system isn't meant just for a place as big as MSU-N. Residential customers can also receive the benefit of renewable energy through the program called the Universal System Benefit program. Residential customers don't apply for the grant themselves, though, he said. "The way we run it for residential consumers is they don't write the grants," Campbell said. "We issue funds for dealers and the dealers solicit the projects." Interested residential customers should contact one of the dealers to inquire about getting a rigid, rooftop set-up, he added. Dealers are listed in the "Bright Ideas in Renewable Energy" publication provided to interested parties by mail or downloaded from the Northwestern Energy Web site. To receive a free copy, customers should call Northwestern Energy at (800) 940-1241 or log onto their website at www.northwest-
