Dive Brief:
- Between 40% and 60% of 125,000 K-12 U.S. schools could profit from solar, according to a new report from The Solar Foundation and the Solar Energy Industries Association, and 450 U.S. school districts could each save more than $1 million over 30 years with solar.
- The attractive value proposition for schools is due to a 53% average system price drop between 2010 and 2014, schools’ high daytime load and plentiful rooftop and grounds space, and champions like the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation and the National Solar Schools Consortium, the report found
- Today, 3,752 schools have solar installed with 490 megawatts of capacity. California's schools lead in megawatts, with 963 schools producing 217 megawatts, followed by New Jersey and Arizona.
Dive Insight:
Six of the 10 biggest school solar arrays are in New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York.
The private, 800-student Lawrenceville School in New Jersey has the biggest array, a 6.1 megawatt system that generates 90% of the school's electricity and earns Net Energy Metering returns from Public Service Electric & Gas during peak demand periods.
The second biggest U.S. K-12 solar installation is owned by the 8,000-student Plymouth, Massachusetts, public system, a 5.57 megawatt installation built by Borrego Solar that meets 60% of the system's electricity needs, cuts $500,000 per year from its energy bill, and will soon be expanded to 8 megawatts.
The National Solar Schools Consortium’s goal is to have 20,000 solar installations producing at U.S. K-12 and post-secondary schools by 2020.
