La Cañada Unified hears solar power pitch
La Cañada Unified School District is poised to take advantage of a solar contract that could create more than $5 million in energy savings over two decades but only if it acts fast, a solar company representative told school board members Tuesday.
Nate Butler, manager of government programs for SunEdison, explained how the district could take advantage of several federal and state incentives programs set to expire in the next year by leasing solar panels from his company through a power purchase agreement.
LCUSD could use a statewide RFP process to contract with SunEdison for 20 years. The School Project for Utility Rate Reduction (SPURR), a joint powers authority of California public schools, selected SunEdison for the purpose of securing pre-negotiated prices and terms that could be used by school districts statewide.
SunEdison would purchase, install and maintain the infrastructure, earning its investment back over the life of a 20-year contract as power was created to run school sites and excess power was sold to area utilities, Butler told the board.
“All the risk of operation is on us. You have no up-front cost, and as we make power we get our investment back,” Butler said, adding that if the system didn’t make power his company wouldn’t get paid. “We are highly motivated to keep the solar running and, therefore, we are much more likely to see savings with solar.”
Representatives from the national company, which has headquarters in Missouri and California, recently visited LCUSD’s district office and school sites to determine the potential size and location for panel systems. From that, Butler created mock-ups and attempted to calculate the cost savings.
The system being proposed for the high school, for example, would generate 946 kilowatts of main power, enough energy to run roughly 200 average-sized homes. The elementary school sites would take smaller units, generating between 121 and 166 kilowatts of power, while the district office might take a 175-kilowatt system.
Butler estimated the potential first-year cost savings at $81,565. Over a 20-year period, that would amount to $5.05 million in energy bills, with about 55% of the district’s energy consumption being offset by the systems.
In order for LCUSD to take advantage of federal tax credits, incentives and a program that would allow SunEdison to sell excess energy created back to the grid, its systems would have to be installed by the end of 2016. For interested school districts time is of the essence, Butler advised.
“We’d have to be operational by the end of next year,” he added. “What we’re telling our potential customers is that you should really do your best to be under contract by December of this year.”
School board members expressed an interest in learning more about the program and how the details might be worked out.
“I’m very interested in continuing to learn more about this,” said Board President Andrew Blumenfeld. “To the extent that it generates this level of savings, it’s obviously very interesting. But I am also interested in learning a lot more about mostly the infrastructure. I imagine down the road that’s going to be the thing we hear the most about from the users.”
It is anticipated the item will come back to the board for consideration at a later meeting.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
