The Old Rochester Regional School Committee took its first steps towards a possible solar canopy installation for the high school parking lot on June 11.
Representatives on behalf of solar developer SunPower, the country’s largest solar developer with over 33 years in business, gave the committee a presentation on what it has to offer the school district – its benefits, terms, and overall expectations over the next couple decades.
Walter Gray of Power Options said a study of area municipal properties shows Old Rochester Regional High School (ORR) to be an optimal location for a solar canopy installation of rows of solar panels 10 to 12 feet high above the parking lot under which vehicles can still be parked while the panels could save the school district a potential $2.9 million in net savings over a 20-year contract period.
These solar canopies or carports, as Gray also called them, would not only provide the school district with energy savings, but also help it to achieve sustainability goals, making a visual statement on the district’s sustainability initiatives and its commitment to them.
There would be no upfront costs to the district as the developer owns and operates the installation, and no ongoing maintenance or operational responsibilities on the part of the district. SunPower will also offer the district competitive pricing and battery storage to defray high demand electricity costs during peak times like in summer.
Already SunPower has installed over 70 solar carport projects, Gray said, with over 30 of them municipal.
“This isn’t something that’s new or that you’re doing for the first time,” Gray assured the committee. “It’s been very well tested by the regional school districts.”
SunPower would perform the legwork to get the project underway, including applying with the Department of Energy Resources under current incentive blocks and coordinating the actual construction and offer the district a “turnkey proposal.”
Gray described the “dual-tilted” panel system as a “checkmark” with a two-degree horizontal tilt on the bottom of the panels and a 15-degree vertical tilt to the top for maximum generation tilting toward the sun. The angling will also provide a way to collect rain and snow as it is funneled towards “mini gutters” connected to a main gutter tied-in to the existing subgrade stormwater system.
The parking lot at ORR could fit a solar energy canopy large enough to generate an entire megawatt, said Gray.
“Solar starts to make more sense when you get economies of scale,” said Gray.
The first year the district could see a savings of about $93,000 and $2.9 million over 20 years, said Gray, at the current rate of $0.09. Any reduced rate negotiated would be locked in for the life of the contract, either for 20 or 25 years.
In addition, SunPower provides an educational STEM curriculum on solar, teacher training and professional externships, and a complimentary TV monitor for the lobby to display the real-time electricity generation stats.
School committee member Joe Pires was concerned about EMF exposure from solar generating facilities and claimed there are numerous nationwide studies and “research everywhere” about the dangers, but Gray tried to assuage Pires’ concerns by explaining how solar energy equipment differs from high tension wires. He said high tension wire EMF output is “far different from what we’re talking about.”
School Committee Chairman Carey Humphrey asked about a solar canopy above the main stadium bleachers, which could be a possibility, according to Chris McCarthy of SunPower, as it may fall under the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) definition of a solar “canopy.”
“It’s something that we could push for,’ said McCarthy. “We would love to do a project like that … and say (to the DOER), it’s a canopy under your definition.”
Superintendent Doug White urged the committee to come up with any remaining questions as soon as possible, as the window to apply under DOER incentive blocks is limited, and SunPower will not move forward in the process unless the district can demonstrate its commitment to drafting a contract of either 20 or 25 years.
At the end of the contract, Gray said the district has three options: purchase the installation, extend the contract, or complete the contract and the developer would decommission the installation and return the parking lot to its original state.
The panels are warrantied for 25 years, and the life expectancy is 40 years.
“I definitely support us looking into this,’ said Pires. “We have to find ways to save money [and] I think this is a way.” But he still needs reassurance that the panels will not cause health problems, he added. “I think we should at least do our due diligence to rule it out completely and not find out ten years from now that these kids had needless exposure to something that they didn’t even know about. I’m all for the saving energy, but not at the cost of putting our kids at risk.”
“It seems like our parking lot is a very attractive asset to them,” said school committee member Heather Burke. She advocated for trying to coordinate the installation with the installation of the athletic complex project (if it passes in Rochester on July 10) to see if SunPower would be willing to include some labor, such as conduits for the new LED lights. “We seem attractive to them so we might as well leverage that.”
Burke and the committee agreed that White should look into speaking with other districts with similar installations to get a sense of what to expect.
“If you’re getting into a 20-year relationship with someone,” said Burke, “they can always look good on paper, but…”
The next meeting of the Old Rochester Regional School Committee will be September 11 at 6:30 pm in the junior high media room.
Old Rochester Regional School Committee
By Jean Perry