The 6.7MW solar installation at the US General Services Administration (GSA) Denver Federal Center (DFC) is almost complete with all solar installations on the GSA DFC campus anticipated to be online by the end of the year. The latest solar installation has been combined with DFC’s 1.2MW solar park, which was installed in 2007. GSA secured added funding in 2009 to construct the 6.7MW solar installation that is currently being completed.
E Light Wind and Solar/Centerre won the design-build contract for the solar project in 2009, which has been constructed in two phases. The first part of the project, a 3.2MW installation, was completed on December 15, 2010 and featured 14, 612 roof-mounted, 224W solar panels that were set up on Buildings 20, 56 and 810.
The final 3.5MW phase, which was increased from an originally planned 3.45MW, will use 14,352, 245W solar panels provided by SolarWorld. The second phase includes ground-mounted solar arrays at two locations on the campus and 14 carport structures with solar panels on Buildings 20, 25, 53 and 810. The solar-ground mounting systems for the 3.5MW phase were provided by Arizona-based Schletter while the carport racking was supplied by Tra-Mage and PV inverters by Satcon.
“GSA has made great strides over the years reducing energy consumption in buildings and we are well under way in turning our vision of becoming the greenest campus by 2020 into a reality,” said Susan Damour, GSA Rocky Mountain regional administrator. “The past couple of years have been an unprecedented opportunity for GSA to help create and sustain jobs all across the country.”
