ROBBINSVILLE: Schools going green to keep students dry

By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
   ROBBINSVILLE — The roofs at Sharon Elementary School and Pond Road Middle School are being replaced this summer and it isn’t costing taxpayers a cent.
   The Robbinsville Board of Education has awarded a contract to a Sewell firm that has agreed to replace the leaking roofs at no charge — a project that would have otherwise cost taxpayers $2.5 million — as a condition of entering into a solar power purchase agreement with the school district.
   ”One of the areas where we’ve been struggling is for resources to repair and keep our facilities in top shape,” Schools Superintendent Steven Mayer said.
   ”By taking steps to go a little bit green, offset our energy usage and shrink our carbon footprint, we’re also going to be able to put roofs on our schools and keep our kids dry,” Mr. Mayer said.
   The winning bidder, Ray Angelini Inc., is going to install about 6,000 photovoltaic solar panels on the rooftops of Robbinsville High School, Sharon Elementary School and Pond Road Middle School. RHS is a new building, so only roofs at Sharon and Pond will be replaced before the solar panels are installed.
   The 1.84-megawatt system, which is expected to be operational by fall, also will include a ground array of panels that will be mounted behind the middle school in a roughly 60-by-100-foot fenced-in section of an open field.
   The contractor will own the solar system and sell the power to the district at the reduced rate of a 12.6-cents per kilowatt-hour that is guaranteed over the 15-year term of the power purchase agreement. The district is expected to save about $1 million in energy costs over the life of the agreement, district officials said.
   Solar energy systems generate revenue for their owners because of the state-created market for Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs). When a solar energy system generates 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity (equal to 1 megawatt-hour), an SREC is placed in an electronic account.
   SRECs, which are now an average $605 each, are sold on behalf of electrical suppliers and providers. Electricity suppliers are required to invest in solar energy and purchasing SRECs is a cost-effective way for them to meet renewable energy goals, rather than building new plants or paying penalties. Owners of solar systems earn money every time SRECs in their electronic account are purchased.
   Although it would have been more profitable for the school district to own its own solar system and keep all the SREC revenue, the up-front costs of repairing the roofs and purchasing and installing the solar system would have required an $11.6 million referendum, according to the district’s architect. If the district were to own the solar system, it could earn a profit of $274,000 a year after the principal and interest was paid on the bonds sold to finance the project, its architect said.
   The Board of Education said the need for a referendum — even one that spent money to make money — was unlikely to be approved by voters so soon after the 2010 defeat of a referendum to build a new K-5 elementary school. The need to repair the roofs sooner, rather than later, led to the school board’s decision to instead seek a power purchase agreement, which gets the roofs fixed for free but allows the firm that owns the system on school property to keep the SREC revenue.
   The roof over the gymnasium in the oldest section of Pond Road Middle School began leaking this winter when a heavy blanket of snow on top of the building began to melt. Although tarps prevented serious damage to the gym floor, the remaining home basketball games had to be moved to Sharon School.
   The roof in the oldest section of Pond Road Middle School, where the gymnasium is located, is 17 years old. Parts of the roof on Sharon School are more than 20 years old, but the elementary school’s gym is housed in a newer wing.