by Shane Henson — December 7, 2011—The U.S. Department of Energy awarded a Solar America Showcase grant to the Sequoia Foundation and Berkeley-based KyotoUSA to develop Solar Master Plans for Berkeley, Oakland, and West Contra Costa Unified School Districts. The Solar America Showcase technical assistance grant was intended to support companies and local government entities that are “highly committed” to adopt solar technology and to accelerate the installation of photovoltaic (PV) panels across the country.
KyotoUSA’s HELiOS (Helios Energy Lights Our Schools) Project is an all-volunteer, grassroots-driven organization determined to reduce fossil fuel usage in every K-12 school in California. The HELiOS model shows how to install renewable energy systems on public schools while making it cost-neutral for the school district from the start.
The wealth of information generated from the Solar Master Plans give the districts’ facilities managers and other professionals involved in energy management for the districts’ collective buildings a much clearer picture of how much energy is being wasted and the avenues the districts could take to become more energy efficient. The Solar Master Plans provide detailed information on each district’s energy consumption and cost, a comprehensive evaluation of the PV potential for all schools and facilities, and specific information on all aspects of a large scale PV transaction, including energy benchmarking, site selection, structural evaluation, financing, solar technology, procurement, and tariffs.
According to the Solar Master Plans, the three school districts consume approximately 47 million kWh of electricity annually at a cost of $7.6 million. The school districts have the capacity to generate approximately 51 million kWh annually if they installed the full 38 MW for which they have capacity. Current regulations do not encourage property owners to oversize their PV systems, so these school districts are limited to 20 MW of solar that would produce approximately 28 million kWh annually with a value of about $5.3 million. The districts would also avoid about 7,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases and generate approximately 27,000 Renewable Energy Credits each year.
