Are Local Schools Making the Grade on Renewable Energy?
Rooftop solar panels on schools can generate substantial energy savings, encourage students, and take a bite out of climate change.
By Eric Bonds
COLUMNIST
Solar on school rooftops has multiple benefits. While we can’t solve the climate crisis through solar energy alone, it is an important part of the energy transition away from fossil fuels that are heating our planet. And while there is a place for utility-scale solar, fields of solar panels across hundreds of acres of land also means losing forests and space for agriculture. But schools are big buildings that typically have flat roofs, an ideal place for significant solar production without any downsides. One school system in Virginia—Middlesex County—already produces as much energy from its solar arrays as it uses each year.
Rooftop solar can also save school districts money. With electricity demand rapidly increasing in Virginia, power bills will only get more expensive. But early adopters like Orange County Public Schools—just to the west of Fredericksburg—have been saving money for years with solar. Orange County Schools signed a solar power purchase agreement (PPA) in 2020 that was expected to save more than ten million in energy costs. Given more-recent projections for the price of electricity in the future, this project might result in even greater savings than initially anticipated.
Through PPAs, a school district contracts with a solar company to install rooftop panels. The company owns the panels and sells the electricity to the school district over a 20-25 year contract period, but at a reduced rate compared to the price charged by Dominion or another utility. The upside for the school system is that it does not need to pay for maintenance of the panels, and the projects require no upfront costs (other than potential roof upgrades depending upon age).
Another benefit of rooftop solar is the message it sends to students. Many young people today experience sadness and despair when they learn about how climate change will impact their future, especially when they see adults in their lives failing to take meaningful steps to address the problem. Rooftop solar is a way that school leaders can show students that they are taking action to protect the climate that today’s youth will inherit.
Given the multiple benefits, it’s exciting to report that Caroline County Public Schools is becoming a statewide leader in rooftop solar. CCPS is in the process of doing substantial energy-efficiency upgrades, which will cut down on energy use and translate into meaningful cost savings for the county. The project will also include a solar PPA on three different schools with a total capacity of 3.2 megawatts (MW).
This amount of solar capacity puts Caroline County towards the top of the list of leading school systems in Virginia, behind big northern Virginia counties like Prince William (7.9 MW), but ahead of both Richmond City Public Schools (2.9 MW) and Orange County (2.5 MW). The rooftop solar panels will save Caroline County an estimated $103,000 in its first year of operation, with eventual savings of $3.5 million over 20 years. This is a major achievement to celebrate; residents of Caroline County should be proud.
Stafford County is also making terrific progress. While it only has solar panels on one school, North Stafford High, it is the biggest single school rooftop solar project in the state. This PPA is expected to save the county $2.8 million on its electricity bills over the 25-year contract period. It will prevent as much carbon from being released into the atmosphere as removing the equivalent of 42,000 cars from the road.
Rather than moving forward with a power purchase agreement, Germanna Community College is purchasing solar panels outright for its new educational building being constructed at the Locust Grove Campus. While much smaller than the rooftop solar projects in Caroline and Stafford County schools, this project is a good first step. In terms of renewable energy production, it places Germanna ahead of the curve.
Neither the University of Mary Washington nor any of the other public-school systems in the George Washington Planning District have solar projects in the works, though several expressed interest in pursuing a PPA in the near future.
Students who attend these schools without solar—along with community members and teaching faculty—can contact leaders to tell them about its multiple benefits and ask that they make it a priority. It would be wonderful to issue a new progress report next year showing that all our local school systems make the grade on renewable energy.
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Great thoughts, article.
Though I've often wondered why we don't utilize solar in other public areas. Especially those where there are potential benefits beyond the energy produced itself.
Where the solar panels could provide shading of parking lots in areas identified as heat islands.
Lanes of the interstate, where, if they managed to just shade one lane in either direction, would not only again minimize the heat effects of those roads, the toll on vehicles (and their drivers) of operating in hotter conditions, but also minimize the need to plow/salt treat those roads during winter events.
How much better would I95 have operated a few years ago if that had been the case?
Waterways/ponds/lakes that suffer from excess heating/evaporation/algae growth during summer. Partial shading in the lakes/ponds (with added structure for fishing), shading waterways in areas where the original tree shading is long gone. Japan already does so.
Anyway, like you said, great where it is being adopted - but seems like there is a lot of potential we are ignoring.
Thanks for writing.