The Department of Energy should increase use of solar power at the Savannah River Site as it addresses aging infrastructure issues, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) said Tuesday.
The recommendation was forwarded to DOE headquarters on a 17-0 board vote. It emphasizes the 310-square-mile South Carolina facility’s suitability for solar power: plenty of cleared land on which solar panels could be installed, along with the Aiken-area climate that “provides abundant sunlight.”
The Energy Department can now partially or fully accept, or reject, the recommendation.
The CAB is one of eight local advisory boards that monitor activities at Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites in their respective regions. These boards have no actual authority, but can offer recommendations to the Energy Department on operations of the nearby facility.
Solar panels are already used to power Savannah River’s stormwater monitoring station and some streetlights.
But the CAB said DOE could go further, recommending the agency consider the use of solar panels on rooftops at SRS to supply renewable energy to those buildings; and perform a study to determine the costs and benefits of solar-generated power in various parts of the site. The recommendation does not include specifics, such as how many buildings should be solar powered or how soon the study should be conducted.
Board members’ interest in solar energy grew from a DOE presentation to the CAB in September on infrastructure needs at the Savannah River Site. The presentation noted that only 12 percent of the facility’s infrastructure – which includes buildings, piping, and roads and bridges – is under 15 years old.
The site has a five-year plan to address its infrastructure needs, such as road and building repairs. The plan will also update technology and equipment in various facilities. One component is replacing the roof of an administrative building with a sustainable cool roof, which allows sunlight to bounce off of its surface — unlike a solar roof, which absorbs the heat. The cool roofing reduces the need to run air conditioning, which cuts energy costs. The Energy Department presentation did not provide estimates on how much a new roof would cost or how much it would save in air conditioning costs.
CAB member Narinder Malik said solar energy can be implemented in many other ways at the site, such as replacing traditional electricity with solar energy as part of upgrades to a site security building.
“We saw that all new equipment would be installed, but we saw that they would be using the old switches and power supply,” Malik said at Monday’s meeting, referencing what the CAB saw during a recent site tour. “At certain parts of DOE, they have used solar power. So we thought, ‘Why doesn’t DOE use solar panels and take advantage of that.’”
The CAB believes its requests could be granted since DOE already has efforts are in place to reduce the cost of solar energy at other sites. The agency’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory published a report in January that looks to reduce the cost of solar energy usage at DOE properties from $0.151 per kilowatt hour to the Solar Energy Technologies Office’s goal of $0.05 per kilowatt hour by 2030.
