The Temecula Valley Unified School District in California soon will get most of its electricity from on-campus solar panels and batteries, according to Inside Climate News.
SolarCity is installing 20 solar arrays and five storage batteries across 19 schools and the district's administrative building. The electrical capacity will be 6 MW, which the story says is enough to power 1,000 homes. Phillip Haddix, a representative of The Solar Foundation, said that Temecula district is different than most of the approximately 3,750 school systems that invested in solar power last year due to to the battery storage element.
The school system spends about $3 million annually on utilities. A four-year program instituted before committing to solar cut electrical costs by about 20 percent.
School campuses are good locales for solar projects. Last month, The Adams County/Ohio Valley School District, which is headquartered in West Union, OH, activated a 535 KW photovoltaic array that could save $260,000 annually.
