New solar energy "chill" spot on campus

This Friday, January 13^th, UC San Diego’s Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) will be showcasing their solar projects at the site of Solar Chill, a recently finished project that is open for all the community to utilize.

The site is located between the Village and ERC housing areas, directly across the street from the Rady School of Management.  The event will take place from 12-2pm and feature the students responsible for Solar Chill and more, including SolarRoller and Solar Car.

Solar Chill is an off-grid photovoltaic structure that recently finished construction and is now open for use. The system can produce 1.5kW of electricity. This generated energy flows into a battery system that feeds the lighting for the site as well as outlets built into the on-site benches. Solar Chill was created to bring solar down from rooftops tucked away out of sight and give people a chance to directly interact with solar and see its functionality. Now that the site is up and running, it is the team’s goal to spread awareness of it so that the community knows to use it. This was the first student-designed project approved to be built on the UC San Diego campus and the team hopes it will serve as an inspiration to other student teams to implement their own creations.

The Solar Chill site is open to anyone - feel free to stop by and recharge!