by Rebecca Walker — May 11, 2011—Wilmington Friends School, one of the oldest private schools in the country, announced it will install more than 700 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on the rooftops of two campus buildings this summer, resulting in one of the largest of solar PV systems on a K-12 school in Delaware and providing a learning opportunity for the school’s students.
The system, installed by Standard Solar, Inc. and owned and operated by Washington Gas Energy Services, Inc. (WGES), will provide electricity for both the lower school building (319 panels) and the upper school building (407 panels).
Upper School students will be able to monitor the real-time output from the solar PV panels through a display to be installed in the school, and data from and about the system will be incorporated into the science curriculum.
The 200 kW solar PV system will produce approximately 246,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, the equivalent of eliminating 170 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year the same as burning 19,000 fewer gallons of gasoline or planting more than 4,000 tree seedlings that grow for 10 years. Installed at no up-front cost to the school, Wilmington Friends will purchase the electricity generated by the system from WGES under a long term power purchase agreement.
Standard Solar, Inc. is a leader in the full-service development, construction, integration, financing and installation of solar electric systems. For more information, see the Web site.
