U. closes Busch campus parking lot for solar panel installation
On February 20, parking lot 58B on Busch campus closed for the remainder of the Spring 2023 semester to allow for solar panels to be installed over the lot.
Michael Kornitas, the director of Sustainability and Energy at Rutgers, explained that the installation of the solar panels is a University-wide operation.
"We're actually installing solar through solar PPA throughout Rutgers. Not only on Busch campus but also Livingston campus, (Cook and Douglass campuses) and Camden," he said.
Kornitas added that the point of installing the solar panels was to honor the University's commitment to reducing its carbon footprint for electricity by 2030.
He said these installations would increase the University's solar energy generation from 8 megawatts to 20 megawatts.
Kornitas said the more energy originating on campus lowers the amount of money the University would otherwise spend paying an outside energy provider. He also said this University-wide solar project would cut the University's expenditure on electricity in half, saving more than $1 million in cost a year.
In addition, Kornitas said students impacted by the lot closures should use the Parking and Transportation Services website for information about the dates of lot closures, when they will reopen and the locations of alternative parking spaces for students.
Students who usually park in Lot 58B can use Lot 58D instead, and those that live on Busch campus have access to more nearby lots, according to the website.
Shivankar Vajinepalli, an Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy graduate student, said he heard about Lot 58 B's closure from an email and signs posted around the lot. Despite having other lots to park in, Vajinepalli still feels inconvenienced.
"I got alternatives. But those alternatives (are) where I was already keeping my car," he said. "That's where I kept my car 50 percent of the time, and now it's overcrowded."
Additionally, he said the entire plan to shut down these parking lots should have been done at more convenient times for students.
"I feel like they could have chosen the time to do this better, over spring break, over winter break or after the semester ended," Vajinepalli said.
Leonard Castillo, a School of Arts and Sciences senior and resident assistant, said he first found out about the closure from Rutgers Residence Life.
He said although he supported the initiative, more consideration should have been given to students when planning it.
"I think it's a start, but … it feels like not a lot of planning went into this," he said.
When asked about the future of these solar panels and their installations, Kornitas said the focus is solely on parking lots for the foreseeable future, as their open spaces are more conducive to solar power.
"I can't say what the future is going to be, where we're going to put solar panels, but it makes the most sense to install them on parking lots because they are wide open spaces that you could utilize and put a large system in," he said.
