Solar Panels Reflect a Bright Future for College Prep Green Initiatives
When students returned to school last fall, they were greeted by a new array of solar panels gracing the roofs of three of the southwest-facing buildings on the College Prep campus. One of the largest of the school’s green initiatives—and certainly the most visible—the panels represent the culmination of a project that stems back a decade.
“The first solar panels were put on the roof of the gym in 2007,” explained College Prep CFO Jane Carney during a recent interview in her office. “They mainly provided energy for the gym.” The original 198 panels produced about 42 kilowatt hours of energy—a great start, but the College Prep Board of Trustees wanted to build on their initial success. “The Building and Grounds Committee is always exploring ways to make the school more energy efficient.”
As with many things in life, timing was key. First, there was the matter of a new master plan for the school. While solar panels can be moved from building to building, the trenching involved in connecting the power from source to destination is a huge job in itself. “We wanted to make sure we knew what we were going to do building-wise, before we installed more panels,” said Carney.
The stars aligned with the completion of the master plan in 2014 and the availability of federal renewable energy tax credits for projects started in 2016. Seizing the opportunity, the Buildings and Grounds Committee looked at which buildings would be the most energy efficient sites for the new panels and asked, “Could we become almost net zero energy consumers?”
To come up with that answer, the group examined the variables: How much energy does the school typically use in a year? How many kilowatt hours could each panel produce? And how is that number affected by the school’s location, the time of year, the number of cloudy days, etc.? Carney credited College Prep parent and former Board member, Tom Beach, who worked in the solar energy sector for providing invaluable research and analysis. “We did a lot of calculating, looking back at our electric bills in prior years, to determine what our usage was so that we could determine how many panels we needed to offset that number of kilowatt hours.”
The result was the addition of 287 panels to the gym, Buttner Auditorium, and the N building—and a significant power boost: Advances in photovoltaic technology between 2007 and 2016 meant that the number of kilowatt hours produced more than doubled— from 42 to 89 kilowatt hours—and with that came smaller electric bills. The data isn’t all in yet since the panels were hooked up just last fall, but Carney said projections show an expected annual savings of $15,000 per year. And leasing the panels through Solar City eliminated upfront costs for the school: “There was really no financial outlay for us.”
For now, there are no plans to add more panels. The surface of the three aforementioned buildings has been maximized, and those on the opposite side of the campus don’t get enough sunlight. But that doesn’t mean that College Prep is done exploring other green initiatives.
“As we take an older campus and update it, we’re always looking for energy savings.... I think it’s part of our responsibility as a school to model behavior for our students and to support the initiatives that we teach,” Carney said. “If an opportunity comes up that supports the concept of Mens Conscia Recti, I really am pleased that the Board will support it.”
To that end, College Prep has tackled a number of other environmentally friendly projects—big and small—in recent years, including:
- Installing a water retention system that collects the ground water at the top of the campus in a 3,000 gallon cistern, which is then piped into the bathrooms in the Scott Building and used for landscaping around campus.
- Replacing existing plants with more drought-resistant varieties.
- Installing uniform containers for trash, recycling, and green waste throughout the campus, some with a solar-powered compactor that reduces the amount of waste going out.
- Adding shuttles to the BART service and expanding the carpool program, with more spaces in the lot for those who ride share.
Other green projects in the works include switching out older bulbs with LEDs; adding motion detectors to all lights so that they turn off when no one is in the room; researching electric vans with an eye to replacing the existing gas-powered fleet one day; and continuing to encourage staff and students alike to find alternatives to driving to school.
“There’s always going to be competition for the financial resources at the school,” explained Carney. “We take that responsibility very seriously, and every decision is grounded in whether it supports the students and their learning.”
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mens conscia recti
a mind aware of what is right