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They call them solar bursaries: Trinity College is using money generated from solar panels on its roof to fund research opportunities and awards for students.

Each day the solar panels on the Larkin Building near the corner of Devonshire Place and Hoskin Avenue generate electrical energy which the College sells at a premium to Toronto Hydro. And this year, revenues from those solar panels helped fund 25 student bursaries.

These “solar bursaries” are the result of a group of environmentally concerned students from Trinity who approached Trinity College bursar Geoff Seaborn six years ago with a plan committing $250,000 in student levies to an environmental project.

“I knew from that moment that we were about to do something truly amazing,” he says.

Sarah Levy, vice-president of the Trinity Environmental Club, says the Trinity students showed impressive leadership.

“The students who called Trinity home in 2007 were visionaries when it comes to environmental responsibility, and it’s thanks to that vision that these funds are now available to current students,” says Levy.

Four years after the students brought forward their proposal, and with the help of an interest-free loan from the City of Toronto, rooftop panels were installed at Trinity and began harnessing energy from the sun.

Today, that solar array generates approximately $20,000 in annual surplus for Trinity, which funds 25 student bursaries in addition to student learning opportunities such as research travel.

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