Solar installations powering K-12 schools are on the rise. Creative financing through PPAs and grants help make these nonprofit installations a possibility, and the benefits are vast: Schools save money on electricity, and students get firsthand experience with solar energy.
Most school installations include some educational aspect, from monitoring kiosks to show students the day’s energy harvest and carbon offset, to curriculum developed in conjunction with solar developers to show solar is a viable career path. Here are eight K-12 schools that went solar in a big way in 2019.
1. Dover High School and Career Technical Center
(Dover, New Hampshire): ReVision Energy installed its largest rooftop solar array in company history on the rooftop of the sprawling Dover High School and Career Technical Center. The 912-kW system was financed through a PPA with the city of Dover, and includes a purchase option in year 10.
2. Flushing Community School District
(Flushing, Michigan): Standard Solar installed almost 1-MW of combined solar for Michigan's Flushing Community School District. Rooftop arrays were installed on seven school buildings, from the community's Early Child Center to Flushing High School. Standard Solar designed, built, financed and will operate and maintain solar arrays while the district owns them.
3. Hamilton Southeastern Schools
(Fishers, Indiana): Ameresco installed two ground-mount solar projects for Hamilton Southeastern Schools in Indiana. The projects will power three schools: Sand Creek Elementary, Sand Creek Intermediate and HSE Intermediate and Junior High. Ameresco also gave the school district two "solar wagons" and programming to incorporate solar into the classrooms.
4. Pleasanton Unified School District
(Pleasanton, California): REC Solar, a subsidiary of Duke Energy Renewables, developed a 1-MW, 660-kWh solar-plus-storage carport for Amador Valley High School. The Pleasanton school district entered a 25-year PPA with Duke Energy Renewables to finance the project that offsets up to 97% of the school's energy use.
5. Guilderland Central School District
(Altamont, New York): ForeFront Power installed a 3-MW ground-mounted solar project to offset 58% of Guilderland Central School District's annual energy consumption. This large project is not located on the school's grounds, so it employs Remote Net Metering to benefit from the solar power. The school plans field trips to the solar farm and can view live production monitoring on kiosks on campus.
6. Pine River-Backus, Pequot Lakes school districts and Central Lakes College
(Pine River, Minnesota): New Energy Equity, Region Five Development Commission (R5DC) and Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL) developed six solar arrays for a total of 1.5 MW for Pine River-Backus and Pequot Lakes school districts and Central Lakes College. The project was made possible thanks to $2 million in funding through a Renewable Development Fund grant by Xcel Energy.
7. Dighton Rehoboth Regional School District
(North Dighton, Massachusetts): Trane developed and installed a 1.2-MW solar portfolio of 12 different carports for Dighton Rehoboth Regional School District. The school district owns the solar portfolio instead of using a PPA. The solar installations fulfill about 75% of the school district's electricity demand.
8. Augusta County Public School system
(Augusta County, Virginia): Standard Solar installed 1 MW of solar across four school rooftops for the Augusta County Public School system. Two local high school students spearheaded the endeavor that will generate about 30% of the district's energy needs.
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