BREAKING NEWS:

UCI plans to install more than 6,000 solar panels in the next few years in an initiative to make the campus more environmentally sound, officials announced this morning.

The 20-year agreement with the Chicago-based company UPC Solar would place 6,500 panels on 11 campus buildings. Officials estimated that the system would reduce UCI’s carbon dioxide emissions by 2 million pounds each year.

“We’ve been working on acquiring solar power at UC Irvine for more than two years,” Wendell C. Brase, vice chancellor of administrative and business services, said in a release. “This contract allows us to harness solar-powered electricity with no capital outlay by the campus. And UCI will be among the first to help the UC system reach its goal of providing 10 megawatts of local renewable power by 2014.”

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com.