Going Green At UC San Diego

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published July 28, 2008 at 11:38 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

The UC San Diego campus today took another step toward generating more of its own power. Crews began installing a solar panel system on top of a six-story parking structure. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce h

The UC San Diego campus today took another step toward generating more of its own power. Crews began installing a solar panel system on top of a six-story parking structure. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has more.

A giant crane hauled up the steel and concrete tubes to the top of the Gilman parking structure on the UC San Diego campus.

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The tubes, which are called solar trees, are used to hold photovoltaic panels.

When the installation is finished, the solar system on top of the parking structure will provide shade while generating electricity.

David Weil works for UCSD's sustainability program.

Weil: But we do want to generate the energy, our own, as much as possible and make it as efficient as possible. Right now we make about 80 percent of our own energy this will bump us up to about 85 percent of our own energy.

The solar system is part of UC San Diego's green energy program.

Weil says more solar panels will be installed on other buildings across the 1,200-acre campus.

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UC San Diego's green energy program will eventually produce enough electricity for more than 4,500 homes a year.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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