Los Gatos Union School District finished the installation of solar panels at all five of its schools to reduce costs and promote sustainability.
“In addition to providing clean and renewable power to our schools and the grid, our new solar systems will help offset the ever-increasing cost of electricity,” said Ryan Fenchel, the district’s facilities committee chairperson.
Daves Avenue, Louise Van Meter, Blossom Hill and Lexington Elementary School and Fisher Middle School had the panels installed over the past few months. The district celebrated the achievement at a ribbon cutting at Fisher Middle School Thursday afternoon.
The panels are part of the district’s goals to be more sustainable and save money. Over the course of the panels’ 20-year life span, the district will save an estimated $4.95 million on electricity costs.
The district partnered with ForeFront Power to bring the panels to the schools and entered a 20-year contract through the Renewable Energy Aggregated Procurement program.
“Another important result of this major project will be the chance to educate our kids on the photovoltaic process of converting sunlight to usable electricity,” Fenchel said. “Fourth-grade students at Blossom Hill Elementary School are already learning about this process while outside enjoying the shade of the solar array working above them.”
The district’s solar panels will generate nearly 1.8 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually–enough to power 250 homes–and prevent 1,300 tons of atmospheric Co2 per year. The district’s transition to clean power is equivalent to taking 275 gas-powered cars off the road each year.
California set climate goals to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and to get 100% of its power from carbon-free sources by 2045.
The district’s sustainability efforts don’t end here. The schools will make facility improvements over the next few years to their playing fields and HVAC systems to be more sustainable.
Source: www.mercurynews.com