To the Editor:

Facilitating widespread climate action requires more than investing in renewable energy. As Adam Met correctly points out in his recent op-ed “Could Concert Fans Ignite the Climate Movement? My Band — AJR — Thinks they Can.” (July 25), tackling the climate crisis requires “out-of-the-box ideas that win over hearts and minds.”

Just as Met’s band uses its concerts to mobilize fans to take climate action, I believe colleges and universities can use donor dollars to similarly inspire students to fight for a cleaner planet.

Here’s how: Schools can set up a fundraising program that directs donations towards supporting on-campus solar panels. Leveraging incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, schools can then use these savings as well as the energy savings from not buying energy from a utility company to fund scholarships. Such on-campus sustainability efforts are both tremendously important to students and can encourage the surrounding community to follow suit.

The process could work like this: A college receives a $70,000 donation for on-campus solar panels. If the school adds another $30,000 itself, bringing the total to $100,000, it could be reimbursed 30 percent of the total project cost under the Inflation Reduction Act’s direct pay incentives program — meaning the institution’s $30,000 contribution would be returned.

Still larger incentives — as high as 70 percent if all criteria are met — can be leveraged for institutions in so-called Energy Communities as defined by the Department of Energy, as well as schools in low-income areas. The resulting energy savings from the solar panels can be used to lower tuition costs for students just like a scholarship from a traditional endowed fund.

Because I’m a data geek as well as a newly minted physics professor, I’ve run the numbers for all higher education institutions in the U.S., and found that the energy savings afforded by campus solar panels yield a much higher return on investment — about 10 to 12 percent — than a typical endowed fund provides, given the same initial donation.

So, in effect, donors can fund the exact same scholarships and initiatives as before but with the added bonus of highly visible campus solar panels. Moreover, the additional energy savings can even be invested into a traditional endowed fund to ensure that the scholarships can be funded long after the typical 25- to 30-year lifetimes of solar panels.

Campuses can be shining examples of clean energy feasibility, host clean energy learning laboratories to inspire students, and educate the public about climate action. In my experience, on-campus climate action also motivates students to more fully engage with course material critical to understanding the climate crisis.

Just like Adam Met is inspiring AJR fans, colleges can also encourage students and the broader community to address climate change. Donors can help jump start that process.

Austin Hinkel
Assistant Professor of Physics
Thomas More University