A 1.8-megawatt (MW) faculty rooftop photo voltaic array, the biggest in Virginia, is now on-line – and the US must do an entire lot extra of this.
College rooftop photo voltaic in Virginia
Stafford County Public Faculties partnered with New York-based Madison Vitality Infrastructure (MEI) to put in the rooftop photo voltaic array at North Stafford Excessive College. It’s made up of three,300 photo voltaic panels, and it’s going to avoid wasting the varsity system an estimated $2.8 million in electrical payments over the subsequent 25 years. The rooftop will even generate 54 million kilowatt hours of fresh power and offset 41,583 tons of CO2.
Set up of this mission in Stafford County, 40 miles south of Washington, D.C., started in February of this yr, and the ribbon-cutting ceremony was yesterday.
College students will study photo voltaic utilizing MEI’s Photo voltaic Empowered Faculties curriculum, which integrates real-time information from the photo voltaic panels into power and science classes. College students have already began utilizing MEI’s solar-empowered faculty modules and VR instructional excursions of the rooftop.
“This rooftop photo voltaic array represents a big milestone for our faculty division,” mentioned Maureen Siegmund, Stafford faculty board chair. “We’re proud to be part of this power and price financial savings mission whereas additionally offering our college students with real-world instructional alternatives to interact on this discipline at North Stafford Excessive College.”
Based on a Generation180 research about solar energy on US Ok-12 colleges launched final month, Virginia ranks No 9 amongst states for cumulative capability of rooftop photo voltaic on colleges. It has 180 arrays with a complete photo voltaic capability of 55,423 kW. The research discovered that 1 in 9 US college students now attend a solar-powered faculty and that greater than 800 Ok-12 colleges added new photo voltaic arrays in 2022-2023.
Electrek’s Take
Like warehouses and field shops, photo voltaic on sprawling, flat faculty roofs is an absolute no-brainer. It saves a ton of cash for colleges, that are all the time on tight budgets and reduces emissions general.
The Generation180 research says that 80% of cumulative photo voltaic capability put in at Ok-12 colleges is primarily funded by third-party possession fashions similar to energy buy agreements and leases (the opposite 20% is direct possession).
The research states, “Efficient third-party possession agreements take away the barrier of upfront capital prices, stabilize long-term electrical energy costs, and generate fast power invoice saving.”
There isn’t any motive that faculty rooftop photo voltaic shouldn’t be rolled out as shortly as attainable in all states, as a result of everybody wins.
Learn extra: Rooftop photo voltaic is put in on West Virginia public colleges – why that’s an enormous deal
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