Approximately 20 percent of St. Bonaventure’s energy consumption will come from solar energy starting in the fall of 2016, according to director of maintenance Philip Winger. The solar panels will be installed at Olean’s brownfields, next to the current location of Dresser-Rand.
BQ Energy of Poughkeepsie is supervising the project, said Winger.
According to Paul Curran, managing director of BQ Energy, the project will begin in the springtime and will take two to three months to complete. Curran said BQ Energy is working in conjunction with National Grid.
“We’d be ready to go, but National Grid has to design the power lines to get to [Bonaventure],” said Curran.
In the meantime, BQ Energy will do “a lot of prep work” on the project, Curran said.
“When we get out to the field [in the spring], everything will be assembled really quickly,” he said.
BQ Energy is known in the area for doing renewable energy redevelopment on brownfields and landfills. It recently completed a project in Tonawanda and was approached by the City of Olean for the Olean solar fields project, according to Curran.
Curran said there is no word yet as to how much the project will cost.
mcelfrdh14@bonaventure.edu
