It’s true! The Medical Center Company (MCCo) has finished installing a 1 megawatt solar facility on Euclid avenue, just between the border of Cleveland and East Cleveland. MCCo provides power for CWRU, UH, and other area institutions. This 1 megawatt facility will produce electricity for the local grid, which will provide both area residents as well as the institutions of University Circle including CWRU with a clean and powerful source of energy. MCCo will also be partnering with CWRU’s Solar Durability and Lifetime Extension research Center to assist the center with their research and data collection goals.
The location of the solar facility is also a reason for celebration. Not only does the solar facility’s location encourage increased collaboration between University Circle and East Cleveland, but the actual site of the facility was a former EPA brownfield. The site was cleaned up with help from the EPA’s Voluntary Action Program of Ohio, as well as a grant from the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund, and will now serve as a productive and sustainable source of clean energy for the area.
MCCo also recently helped to secure the solar panels on the new Tinkham Veale University Center. The solar panels on the Tink are capable of producing 40 KW hours of electricity, and helps to keep the lights on at the Tink! Both the Tink’s solar array and the solar field on Euclid Avenue were installed by employees of the Evergreen Energy Solutions as a part of the Evergreen Cooperative, an organization working to employ disenfranchised individuals and provide work opportunities to individuals facing barriers to enter the traditional job market. Evergreen is also a worker-owned corporation, so employees are not only given job opportunities, but also opportunities to build wealth through their employment.
To learn more about the solar facility and other sustainability initiatives at MCCo, check them out on their website here or check out this blog post from the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 initiative here!
Story by Morgan Bulger