La Cañada Unified eyes solar panels

La Cañada Unified officials expressed a desire Tuesday to seek community input before moving forward with plans to outfit every school campus with solar panels, though they could consider some iteration of the project in a January vote.

The idea was put before the governing board last month when Nate Butler, a representative with national solar installer SunEdison, encouraged the district to act by December to take advantage of state and regional incentive programs, which expire next year.

Butler explained LCUSD could sign a 20-year power purchase agreement and pay no money up front for the installation and maintenance of the panels, which could create more than 1 megawatt of power — enough to offset about 55% of the district’s energy consumption.

Any excess energy created by the system would be sold back to the grid to cover SunEdison’s investment, while the district saved $81,565 in the first year and more than $5 million throughout the life of the contract.

On Tuesday, board members learned more from Kevin Flanagan, a representative from the School Project for Utility Rate Reduction (SPURR), a joint powers authority of California public schools and agencies that selected SunEdison for the purpose of securing pre-negotiated solar prices and terms that could be used by school districts statewide.

SPURR aggregates the purchasing power of its member agencies which, in turn, can benefit from lower utility rates and a streamlined buying process through a statewide RFP that selected SunEdison as the approved installer, Flanagan told the board.

Like Butler, he advised board members to sign a contract soon while state tax breaks still allow SunEdison to offer lower prices and Southern California Edison’s net energy metering rules maximize energy buy-back rates.

“Everybody’s trying to build these projects next year. So I would just chime in,” he said.

Board members weighed the pros and cons of moving ahead with plans to put solar panels at all school sites as well as the district offices. Chief among their concerns was what neighbors and school families might think of the visual and functional impact of the panels, particularly at elementary school campuses.

Although SunEdison has worked with district officials to identify unobtrusive areas for the panels, namely near playing fields and by or over parking lots, some have questioned how their presence would affect the look of more residentially located campuses.

Board member Dan Jeffries said he hoped the district could solicit community input before making decisions that would impact the community.

“The initial community response seems to be in favor of the idea that solar power is good and is a lower cost to the district,” he said. “But when it comes down to the details of what does it look like, I think we just want to make sure everyone knows that it’s coming, that if you live near one of the schools it’s going to change the look of the school.”

Board President Andrew Blumenfeld said one option might be advancing negotiations with SunEdison as the district collects feedback.

“One thing that I think makes a lot of sense is probably continuing to gather feedback from the community about the details of specifically where different structures will go … but still being able to move forward on the idea of project so we weren’t missing out on some of the major benefits,” he said.

Another approach, he said, might be getting La Cañada High School, the district’s largest campus, signed up for the deal while incentives are peak and then continuing with the elementary school sites at a later date.

La Cañada Unified officials will seek input at PTA meetings and from the La Cañada Educational Foundation, as well as a public forum whose date has yet to be determined. Meanwhile, the board could vote on some sort of agreement with SunEdison at its Jan. 12 meeting.

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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine