Solar Array
Oxy's $6.8-million, 1-megawatt ground-mounted solar array is one of the largest of its kind in Los Angeles. It generates approximately 12 percent of the College's annual electrical usage and save an estimated $250,000 a year. Its innovative, ground-hugging design makes it a model for other infill ground-mounted solar arrays. Originally proposed by Physics Professor Daniel Snowden-Ifft, the solar array represents a collaboration between Art faculty and a local design firm that created a curving design based on a mathematical expression known as a hysteresis loop (produced when an alternating magnetic field is applied to ferromagnetic material). The array was completed and went online in 2013.