UVA’s Lighting of the Lawn show powered by solar panels for 6th year in a row

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Friday evening, December 6, thousands of people in the Charlottesville community will bundle up and head to grounds for Lighting of the Lawn.

It’s a beloved tradition that’s been going on for more than 20 years.

What many might not know about LOTL is that the light show is powered completely by solar panels.

CVille Solar Project, a student-ran club at UVA, is in charge of the operation.

The group said on Wednesday the batteries and thus stored energy were already ready to go for the big night.

“They’ve already been pre-charged a day or two days early,” Nora Wilkerson with CVille Solar Project said. “It only takes maybe half a sunny day to have everything up and charged like we want it to.”

The club said it took a few days of hard work to put it all together.

“A 30 minute light show is no biggie. We can power up to 4 or 5 times that amount,” Wilkerson said.

The idea to use energy from the sun to put on UVA’s biggest light show started in 2018.

“We figured this would be a really fun way to demonstrate the power of solar panel,” Ava Bankert with CVille Solar Project said.

Since then, the club hasn’t looked back.

Bankert said often when people learn Lighting of the Lawn is powered through solar panels, they are surprised.

The panels, donated by Suntrust Solar, are used by CVille Solar for other projects throughout the year.

The students said, though, nothing compares to the thousands of people who will experience their work when the rotunda lights up.

“It is a really good way to show that we can step forward in the use of renewable energies,” Bankert said.

Lighting of the Lawn will take place Friday night from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

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