By this fall, UW-Stout plans to install 36 solar panels atop Price Commons as a first step toward the goal of powering the campus entirely with renewable energy. The Stout Student Association, the university’s student government body, recently OK’d the project, which is funded with $66,280 in student fees set aside for sustainability projects. Following a feasibility study by Next Step Energy of Eau Claire, the student association’s Sustainability Council selected Price Commons as the best spot for the panels “because of future expansion potential and visibility to the campus community and visitors,” a press release stated. Price Commons is a conference and meeting center and also serves as the main campus food service facility. The 36 panels will produce 10.8 killowatts of renewable energy, but the roof is big enough to eventually hold 690 panels, said UW-Stout sophomore Kennedy Crever, the Sustainability’s Council’s director. Previously, the Stout Student Association had expressed support for UW-Stout’s Seize the Grid Campaign, which calls for the campus to rely solely on renewable energy by 2030. According to UW-Stout, the university will now work with the Division of Facilities Development in Madison, which manages all UW System building projects, to make sure the Price Commons solar project sees the light of day.