The project required no upfront investment by the district and is expected to save upwards of $520,000 within the first year of operation alone, with $35 million in savings over the next 25 years by providing affordable power at a discount to utility rates, according to a statement by SolarCity, the San Mateo, Calif.-headquartered renewable electricity firm that completed the project.

“Like many school districts across the county, Temecula Valley has faced increasing budget cuts and rising operational expenses,” said Janet Dixon, director of facilities development at Temecula Valley Unified School District, in a statement. “With SolarCity, we found a creative way to cut our electricity bills. This money will free up funds for the district to invest in student programs and curriculum.”

Altogether, the project includes 18 solar carports and two ground-mount solar arrays. The carports will incorporate SolarCity’s ZS Beam technology, while five of the sites will also be equipped with DemandLogic, the company’s smart energy storage system. The systems will provide approximately 2,600-kilowatt hours of energy storage capacity that can later be intelligently dispatched during times of highest demand. In turn, the school district will reduce energy costs by using stored electricity to lower peak demand, further contributing to its overall cost savings.

With all elements combined, the system is expected to prevent more than 96,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere over its lifetime; the equivalent to taking more than 20,000 cars off the road for a year. In addition, because solar power production requires virtually no water, the system is expected to avoid the use of more than 4 billion gallons of water.

A Power Purchase Agreement with SolarCity will allow the district to only pay for the power the systems produce at a fixed rate that is less than what is currently offered by the local utility company, according to a statement by SolarCity. The district also retained independent energy consulting firm Sage Renewable Energy Consulting Inc. of Inverness, Calif., to help assess project feasibility and determine cost-effective, energy-optimizing designs for each site. The consultants helped to solicit and organize proposals for the projects and select the best candidate to meet the district’s specifications and goals, according to a statement by SolarCity.

Beyond simply providing energy cost savings, the project also promises to provide an opportunity for students to learn about solar energy and storage. The project will offer students access to a solar production monitoring system, allowing them to see exactly how much energy the schools’ photovoltaic panels are producing on an hourly, daily, monthly and yearly basis, according to a statement by SolarCity.

For more information on the project visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUp5aL9JrHA

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As of September 2014, there were more than 3,700 solar energy systems located on public and private K-12 schools in the U.S., according to a report released by The Solar Foundation. The solar movement is becoming so strong that now new construction projects integrate solar into part of the initial plan, as opposed to retrofitting schools to include solar. School Construction News spoke with Jim Rice, CEO of Nautilus Solar Energy LLC, a Summit, N.J.-based company that delivers full-service expertise on solar electric projects across the U.S., about the future of solar power at schools for the upcoming school year.

Q: Why are schools starting to go solar?

Rice: Nautilus Solar was founded in 2006, and schools were some of the early adopters for a couple of key reasons. It all comes down to the almighty buck. Our core value that we provide schools is the ability to save them costs on their power bills. School infrastructure is always a challenge, so we’re investing in the infrastructure and then saving them money.

Another reason is that they have broader social purpose, and they all have sustainability goals. Because schools serve as key elements in the community, the idea is that they’re promoting sustainability, and then saving money is big proponent.

The last reason is educational. The ability to have a solar system and then teach a curriculum around it is a real benefit for schools. We developed a K-12 curriculum for schools, and many found value in it.

Q: Are there specific areas of the country where solar is more popular for schools, and why?

Rice: The top five areas are California, New Jersey, Arizona, Massachusetts and Nevada. In all of them, the amount of solar resource is good. They also have a supportive regulatory environment, and that combination means that they are tremendous targets for solar. What’s even more exciting is if you look at the list of schools that can save money, the list goes way beyond those states.

Q: How does going solar affect maintenance and operations at a school?

Rice: If the system is on the roof, you have to make sure the roof is high enough quality and strong enough to hold a solar facility. The good news is that systems have gotten better and lighter. If they’re located in a parking lot, a lot of the maintenance and operations could be based on clearing snow. Basic maintenance involves washing the modules, and then you have semiannual maintenance of inverters and other components. We’re monitoring output remotely, so if we see them go down, we have visibility.

Q: What tends to be the most popular placement for solar panels at a school, and why?

Rice: Definitely the roof. When you’re up on the roof, you’re away from things like vandalism. By far the best location as far as schools go is large flat roofs, and that’s how most schools are designed across America.

Q: How does Nautilus Solar standout for schools in the solar energy market?

Rice: For Nautilus, it’s been our core market since day one. Our team has worked with multiple schools in multiple locations. I think that we really understand some of the challenges that schools have as far as the deployment of solar, even to the point of school board decision-making and parts of the permitting solutions. We’re a total solar solution provider, and we spend a lot of time understanding challenges that schools have. For example, [we understand] how to schedule construction so that it’s not interfering with the student population, from a safety and distraction perspective. We do the offset management as well, so we give schools comfort that an experienced entity will be there for the long term. We’ll continue to focus on schools, and it will be one of the primary markets for us.

The post Q&A: Back to School with Solar appeared first on School Construction News.

The post Silicon Valley District Starts Solar Project appeared first on School Construction News.

In the near future, WPU plans to follow up its most recent solar installation with a 500-kilowatt to 1 MW photovoltaic project, which is likely to begin construction next year, Poandl says. Part of the project could sit atop a science building that’s currently under renovation and expected complete by 2012. They are planning to use products from a business like SandbarSolar.com as they are known to provide custom fittings at an affordable price.

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