Did Michigan State's $10 million bet on parking lot solar panels pay off?

Dec 03, 2023

EAST LANSING — In 2017, Michigan State University officials said putting solar panels in five parking lots could generate $10 million worth of electricity over 25 years for the school.

Six years later, the university says those predictions appear on track.

The panels, at the time, were the largest parking lot solar parking lot array in North America. While larger projects have since been undertaken, MSU's project remains one of the nation's largest with 40,000 solar panels over 5,000 parking spaces, generating 10.5 megawatts of electricity during peak hours.

Six Flags Magic Mountain in Los Angeles is building the largest installation of its kind in California, and the largest for a for-profit company. The installation would power 20 roller coasters and the park's operation and generate 12.4 megawatts at its peak. Projects in Paira Daiza zoo in Brugelette, Belgium and Biddinghuizen, Netherlands, have been built in recent years and cover 7,000 and 15,000 parking spaces, respectively.

Parking lot solar panels remain a small part of electricity generation for MSU, but during a bright day the panels can power up to a sixth of the power needs of the campus. Annually, officials said the project was expected to save MSU from having to generate or purchase around 15,000-megawatt hours of electricity, or 5% to 6% of energy consumption on campus.

The solar panels generated about 14,000 megawatt hours in 2019, compared to the campus's overall demand of 331,000 megawatt hours, according to university figures.

New installations are generating more power using less space due to advances in panel technology, said Doug Bessette, an assistant professor at MSU with a focus on sustainability including solar work. Although parking lot panels are more expensive than traditional ground-based solar arrays because of the engineering and extra materials to lift the arrays above vehicles.

The bays are built high − above 14 feet tall at their lowest point − to allow RVs and other big vehicles driven by tailgaters on football Saturdays to park under them.

The parking bays were built by Inovateus Solar, which own the structures and sells all of the power collected to MSU at a fixed rate. Inovateus Solar officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Bessette said the MSU panels have become a campus institution, students in his sustainability class often don't bring them up as a sustainable feature and Bessette said he doesn't think about the carports all the time either.

"It's kind of integrated into the campus infrastructure," he said. "We constantly harp on landscape fit, meaning the more it fits, the more local support you'll have. And I think students may notice it has solar, but they really like that it covers them from sun and wind and rain and snow."

That kind of boring acceptance of green energy projects is what sustainability experts look for, Bessette said.

"They're universally liked," he said. "But I shouldn't say 'universally' because I haven't talked to everyone but I've never heard anyone saying that this didn't work out."

Medical student Kareem Almudhalae parked Wednesday in Lot 91 just off of Hagadorn Road and said he doesn't give the panels much thought, although he said he appreciates the convenience.

"It's more like a parking cover. It keeps our car cool in the winter, it's pretty nice," Almudhalae said. "I like it a lot."

The units sometimes need maintenance that is done by the developer, such as a short circuit that could interrupt some rows of solar panels but not the full array, Bullion said.

Contact Mike Ellis at [email protected] or 517-267-0415