GILROY—Hoping to save more than $10 million in energy costs by 2035, the Gilroy school board has approved solar power installations at four schools in a deal that includes the free repaving of the Gilroy High School parking lot estimated to be worth $1 million.
“Your schools are going to be powered by the sun,” sales manager Brian Taylor of SunEdison told school trustees at their Sept. 3 meeting.
The district will contract with the firm for sprawling arrays of solar modules that will rise like giant, tilted rectangles above parking lots, gathering sun and offering acres of shaded parking for students, teachers and staff, along with LED-lighting for security at night.
The cost of installation of the more than 135,000 square-feet of solar modules and maintenance of the system will be borne by SunEdison; construction is expected to begin in mid 2016. And if anything goes wrong, the company will make the district ‘whole’ for any losses, Taylor said.
Under California utility laws, such systems can sell power to PG&E. In Gilroy’s case, Taylor said the district will be able to sell excess electricity at 30 cents per kilowatt-hour and buy when necessary at 7 cents per kilowatt-hour.
First year savings alone are estimated at $139,000, or 15 percent, according to Taylor. And under the deal, the school district’s electricity costs cannot increase for 20 years.
Superintendent Debbie Flores said that SunEdison will repave the GHS parking lot, which is something that is needed and that the cost of doing so with contractors had been estimated at $1 million.
Besides Gilroy High School, the largest installation, systems will be installed in parking lots and or maintenance yards at Christopher High School and Brownell and South Valley junior high schools.
The schools and their estimated first-year and 20-year cost savings are as follows: CHS, $74,000 and $4.2 million; GHS, $8,000 and $3.1 million; Brownell, $32,000 and $1.4 million; and South Valley, $24,000 and $1.8 million.
Other schools were not included mostly because they lacked sufficient parking lot areas to make systems efficient.
Trustee Fred Tovar questioned that the four schools represented less than half of the district’s classrooms, and it was suggested that as more analysis is done, other areas might be identified to support modules—for example at Gilroy Prep School.
Trustee Linda Piceno wondered whether the saving gained at four of the 15 schools might be offset by the rising cost of energy at the district’s 11 other schools.
Alvaro Meza, assistant superintendent for business services, said the plan that was proposed was designed to produce “maximum savings,” which is why other schools were not included.
Flores noted the district had explored solar power in the past. “Last time we looked at it, it did not make sense.’
This time was different; trustees voted unanimously, with Jaime Rosso absent, for the deal.
