TerraVerde Renewable Partners helps school districts save $32 million with solar energy projects

by Shane Henson — September 10, 2012—TerraVerde Renewable Partners, an independent energy advisor, recently assisted three of its large school district clients in California’s Central Valley —Fowler Unified School District (USD), Firebaugh-Las Deltas USD, and Golden Valley USD—in completing solar projects across 16 of their campuses.

The new solar energy sites are projected to save the school districts more than $32 million in electricity costs over the next 25 years, allowing them to allocate money that would have been spent paying for ever-increasing energy costs toward improving their schools and offering students even better resources.

“Solar energy projects for public schools are essentially revenue enhancements for school districts, which directly benefit students and taxpayers,” said Eric Cederquist, superintendent of Fowler USD. “We turned to TerraVerde for help because they were able to look into the feasibility of doing a solar project at no up-front cost to us. There was no financial risk to the district and they have refined a process specifically to meet the needs of public schools.”

Fowler USD implemented a 0.84 megawatt (MW) solar project across six campuses that is designed to save more than $435,000 in the first year and more than $13 million over 25 years. Firebaugh-Las Deltas USD developed a 0.91 MW system across three sites, designed to save more than $195,000 in the first year and more than $9 million over 25 years. Golden Valley USD built a 1.11 MW system across seven campuses that is projected to save more than $42,000 in the first year and $9.9 million over 25 years. The differences in annual and long-term savings are the result of different financing strategies available to each of the districts, says TerraVerde.