In a press release Thursday, the university announced that its most recent solar parking lot project is nearing completion.

“More than 1,000 solar panels were installed on top of the new covered structure over the existing public pay lot. Construction on the lot began in late spring and will finish in mid-December,” the release stated. “The pay lot is centrally located near the Student Services Center, Shepherd Union and Val A. Browning Center.”

It is the second parking lot that WSU has covered with a canopy for solar panels. The W10 lot on the northwest side of campus was covered with a solar array canopy in 2020 and generates 550 kilowatts of power.

The release adds that the new array will produce up to 900 kilowatts and will help to power the Student Services Center and Kimball Visual Arts Center.

Jacob Cain, interim associate vice president for facilities and campus planning, told the Standard-Examiner Thursday that building the first solar lot taught them a lot about how to go about the process.

“When we did the first lot, originally we had looked around at different institutions and organizations,” he said. “When you cover a lot with covered parking, typically you do just over the stalls, which runs into some challenges with snow removal, maintenance and management. We went out for a proposal and one of the bidders proposed covering the entire lot, which is interesting because it allowed us to cover a lot more with solar as well as not have to deal with the snow removal.”

He said covering the whole lot meant reduced maintenance on the lot itself, but that wasn’t the only benefit.

“We found out later with that first lot we were able to do events and stuff underneath it because it covered the entire lot,” he said.

Cain said lessons were learned from the W10 lot about dealing with ice buildup, storm water management and other structural details and applied to the new solar structure being completed over the public pay lot.

From here, Cain said the university is likely going to build more solar arrays over parking lots in the future.

“We have a couple ideas out there,” he said. “This has been a good thing, we want to do more of it, and so we are looking at and identifying future lots. … The idea has been well received by the community, students and faculty.”

This is hardly the only ongoing WSU solar project. The press release noted the solar-powered “Flaming W” on Mt. Ogden is under construction and will be completed in May 2025. The array will also help supply the Dee Events Center.

“The solar arrays are part of Weber State’s continued work to become a sustainable, carbon-neutral campus by 2040,” the release stated. “Between the Ogden and Davis campuses, Weber State now has 9,527 solar panels and approximately 25% of its power is solar.”

The press release also said the school has saved $27.3 million on campus utility costs since 2007 thanks to its use of solar panels.