How Community Solar Projects Can Lower Electric Bills and Help Schools
By Miriam Gold
Schools, businesses, homeowners and local governments can lower their electricity bills up to 10 percent by subscribing to a community solar project.
There is no cost to join and there is no fee if you need to cancel your subscription, according to sustainablewestchester.org.
Sustainable Westchester helps local municipalities adopt clean energy solutions, including community solar.
Community solar projects can be located on commercial rooftops, in commercial parking lots or fields that get lots of sunlight.
“Mount Kisco installed a community solar project on top of a capped landfill about six months ago,” said Leo Wiegman, director of solar programs at Sustainable Westchester.
Robert Martin, a real estate company, has installed solar panels on its commercial roofs in Yonkers, Hawthorne and Elmsford.
The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers’ Ossining campus is installing solar panels on canopies in two parking lots, generating 874 kilowatts of energy, which could provide electricity for 100 to 200 homes.
“If you have a roof with 20,000 to 25,000 square feet, with no obstructions, or if you have 300 to 400 parking spaces, you can be a candidate for installing community solar,” Wiegman explained.
Organizations installing community solar can send energy to subscribers and earn money for leasing their property.
Malls are especially well-suited for solar array installation because of their size and flat roofs.
If a school, business or local government decides to use community solar, it can become an anchor tenant, a subscriber to community solar that has a large electricity bill.
Anchor tenants are crucial to community solar programs because they are financially stable compared to other subscribers, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Anchor tenants help finance community solar projects and ensure that the projects will always provide a constant stream of subscribers, since their subscriptions are longer and larger than individual subscribers, states the NREL website.
A standard subscription for an anchor tenant is about 20 years and the portion of the solar farm that they are subscribed to is up to 40 percent of the farm’s capacity,
The rest of the solar farm’s capacity is allocated to other subscribers, including small business operators and homeowners.
School districts in the United States spend about $6 billion a year on electricity, according to the U.S Department of Energy. A school saving up to 10 percent on its electric bill can free up money to allow the school to invest more in vital student programs, facilities and technology.
Schools consume lots of electricity. Think of the amount of energy required to power classrooms, interactive whiteboards, hallways, bathrooms, the cafeteria and its kitchen, the gym, weight room, the library, auditorium, administrative offices, copy machines, display cases, basement, kilns for baking clay, closet space, athletic fields and locker rooms.
Also, many public schools issue a computer to every student for use in the classroom and at home. Students charge their computers in the school every day, using outlets in classrooms, the cafeteria and the library.
Schools subscribing to community solar can operate using a renewable energy source without installing any structures on campus. Instead, the energy is provided in the form of a solar farm in any space that can’t be used for other purposes, such as a roof, a field or landfill. From there, the electricity from the solar energy goes into the electric grid through local utility services before being delivered to the project subscribers.
New York State’s goal is to generate 70 percent of its power using renewable energy by 2030 and generate 100 percent renewable energy by 2040. If a school joins a community solar project, they will help the state accomplish its goal and help stabilize our common climate.
Miriam Gold is a rising sophomore at Pleasantville High School.
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