Irvine, CA School District Going Solar

Yesterday, the Irvine United School District  formally announced (PDF) its plans to install solar at each of its 21 sites, which together serve over 27,000 K-12 students. Partnering with SunEdison and SPG Solar for the financing and installation, IUSD can look forward to great energy savings with no cash outlay:

The clean, silent renewable energy systems will save the district $17 million in energy expenses over 20 years based on conservative estimates. Under the terms of the power purchase agreement, the Irvine Unified School District will incur no upfront capital costs. SunEdison will finance, build, operate and maintain the solar power systems, with IUSD purchasing energy with long-term predictable pricing.

In addition to the cost savings, IUSD is going to incorporate solar power into its curriculum in an effort to teach the next generation about the technology and benefits of this unique renewable energy. The press release indicates that the project will:

• Generate more than 6.6 million kilowatt hours of solar energy in the first year based on the projected 21 sites.

• Generate more than 120 million kilowatt hours of solar energy over 20 years – enough energy to power more than 11,000 average homes for one year.

• Offset a projected 127 million pounds of carbon dioxide over 20 years – the equivalent of removing more than 12,000 cars from the road for one year, based on an average of 12,000 annual miles per vehicle.

California’s private sector solar industry has long been booming; but schools and other non-profits have a harder time instituting solar because many of the available incentives are tax-based. Solutions like the one Irvine has found help bring more solar panel installations into the state whose high energy demand and cost make solar so (in)valuable.