Bold renewable energy and efficiency initiatives are becoming standard fare for the east and west coast of the country. These areas — particularly California and New Jersey, when it comes to solar power — are where many such projects take root, after all. But a school in Richardsville, Kentucky is poised to make energy history, and in the process make inroads as far as renewable energy adoption and awareness in the southern and central parts of the country.

Workers from Morton Solar, a local solar energy installer, and Advanced Electrical Systems, a Kentucky electrical contracting company, have started constructing a 2,700-panel, $2.4 million solar energy system on the roof of Richardsville Elementary and its parking lot. In addition, the school is making energy efficiency a priority. Funded in part by a Kentucky state grant, the project will allow the school to use 75 percent less energy than neighboring schools, according to the Bowling Green Daily News. It  will be a main contributor to the school’s goal: becoming the first net-zero energy school in the United States.

There are a plethora of energy efficiency measures that go in to such an accomplishment, and Richardsville Elementary has been tackling those measures one at a time. They’ve installed geothermal piping to eliminate the use of boilers and furnaces, for example, and taken care to extra-insulate concrete walls.

The school is expected to produce more energy that it needs on an an average day. On a sunny day, the solar power system should produce 2,500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy. The school will sell its excess energy to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) at a rate of 22 cents per kWh.