CSUN Sustainability Overview

For our final class project, the Save the Planet team interviewed two of the key players in the California State University Northridge sustainability movement: Dr. Ashwani Vasishth, the recently appointed head of the new CSUN Sustainability Institute, and Tom Brown of the Physical Plant Department. We also talked to some students about recycling.

Solar Powered Cinema

The Fairfax 5 Theaters in Fairfax, Calif., is now partially powered by solar energy with the completion on Sept. 9 of a 27-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system.

The historic theater, built in 1952, is owned by Cinema West. Dave Corkill, founder of the company, recently turned the Fairfax 5 into Marin County's first all-digital projection theater and believes it is the first multiplex cinema in the U.S. to go solar.

Over the 30-year life of the SPG Solar PV system, it is expected that in addition to more than $627,000 in energy cost savings, it will also offset more than 2 million pounds of carbon dioxide.

The system has 42 solar modules on the building's roof. Nearly half of the system's cost was recouped through the use of a State rebate and a federal tax credit.