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Friday, March 29, 2024
<p>City Commissioner Todd Chase, center, speaks with John Wayne Mishoe, left, and Stephen Belser, right, of JWM Engineering LLC after a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of the solar panel system installed in the Continuum apartments.</p>

City Commissioner Todd Chase, center, speaks with John Wayne Mishoe, left, and Stephen Belser, right, of JWM Engineering LLC after a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of the solar panel system installed in the Continuum apartments.

The Continuum’s garage has gone solar.

The UF graduate student, faculty and staff housing complex received a 250-kilowatt solar panel system earlier this fall from Gainesville Regional Utilities worth about $800,000, said John Wayne Mishoe, an emeritus professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and one of the project’s head engineers.

At a ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday morning, Mayor Craig Lowe and representatives from community organizations that made the solar system possible spoke from the shelter of the garage’s fourth floor.

The project is using the facility, located at 425 W. University Ave., to host the panels. Private investors and GRU paid for the materials and installation.

In return, the investors will get cash back and GRU will get power through a system called a feed-in tariff, said Patrick Wilber, the business development manager for Power Production Management.

The Continuum doesn’t use the power being harnessed on its roof.

Instead, the panels convert the sun’s rays into a direct current energy, which is then sent to a converter that changes it into a usable, alternate current, he said.

After the conversions, the current flows into the GRU power grid.

The energy then compensates The Continuum, builders and other investors every month with funds in exchange for the energy.

The system is under warranty for the next 20 years but is expected to last for at least the next 25 years, said Jason S. Gonos, director of Power Production Management.

When they are operating, the solar panels offset the average energy use of 30 homes, which is about 465,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

One of the major difficulties that came from the project was figuring out a way to put flat-laying panels on a parking garage without interfering with normal traffic operations.

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“It’s a simple idea, but it’s hard to implement,” said Mishoe.

The solution came with the conduits.

By installing the tubing vertically, the wiring that ran the electricity could be incorporated into the panel’s structural beams, which are placed on the lines between parking spaces.

The result is a parking garage where cars can maneuver freely and park with shade and shelter with a roof made of photovoltaic panels.

As the rain slid down toward the lectern at the bottom of the ramp, Lowe outlined his appreciation for each entity that contributed to the success of the project.

“This demonstrates one of the great things that can happen when the values and expertise of our community comes together,” he said.

Contact Alex Catalano at acatalano@alligator.org.

City Commissioner Todd Chase, center, speaks with John Wayne Mishoe, left, and Stephen Belser, right, of JWM Engineering LLC after a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of the solar panel system installed in the Continuum apartments.

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