Southgate Breaks Ground on Campus Solar Array, Sets 2035 Carbon Neutrality Goal

Southgate University broke ground this week on a 4-acre solar array east of the Griffin Athletic Complex, the first major step in a campus sustainability plan announced last year by President Marianne Okafor. The installation is expected to supply roughly 12 percent of the university's electricity needs once completed in spring 2027.

The project was developed with a regional renewable energy cooperative and is funded in part by a state clean-energy grant alongside university capital funds. Facilities officials say the array will be paired with LED retrofits already underway in Bell Hall and the Hartwell Library.

"This is a down payment on a promise we made to our students," said Dana Okwuosa, vice president for finance and administration, at Tuesday's groundbreaking. "They've asked us to take climate commitments seriously, and this is what that looks like in concrete and steel."

The array is the first visible milestone in Southgate's broader pledge, adopted by the Board of Trustees in 2025, to reach carbon neutrality across campus operations by 2035. Additional phases, including geothermal heating pilots in the residence halls, are under study for the coming years.