By Stephanie Vaccaro, Staff Writer
Princeton Regional Schools is taking a step forward on its solar project. At its Aug. 11 meeting, the Board of Education adopted a resolution to participate in the Mercer County Improvement Authority’s renewable energy program.
”The range of savings is somewhere between $70,000 and $100,000,” said Judy Wilson, superintendent, of the projected annual savings.
”PRS is just a participant invited to join in on this county wide project,” said Stephanie Kennedy, business administrator and board secretary.
The scope of the project includes rooftop solar panels on the administration side of the Valley Road building and on all schools in the district, with the exception of Littlebrook Elementary School because its room is not oriented toward the sun properly and trees block the area and Community Park School as the roof is too old to install a 15-year solar panel, said Ms. Kennedy.
Because the project is sponsored by the county, there is no cost to the district for participation, said Ms. Kennedy. The panels will generate about 8 percent of the power for each building on which they are installed.
”The board of education and the administration are excited about having the ability to now install solar panels. It was not feasible prior to this project to consider this great sustainable endeavor because of budgetary constraints,” said Ms. Kennedy.
”The solar company will fund the solar project and then sell the electricity back to the local units,” said Phillip Miller of the Mercer County Improvement Authority.
The program is a pooled program modeled after similar programs in other counties, said Mr. Miller. The authority identifies land prime for solar panels with consultants, pools them throughout the county and from the pool builds a request for a proposal (RFP) and has a vendor come in to bid on building solar panels on all of the facilities. The local unit agrees to purchase electricity from the provider at a lower rate than they’re currently paying.
”We have about 11 local units right now that are seeking approval from their governing bodies,” said Mr. Miller. There are 25 sites among those 11 units.
”We’re still in the pooling stages right now,” said Mr. Miller.
They have not yet identified a company identified. When they do, solar company will bid three different price scenarios: one using their own money, one that would have 70 percent of the funds guaranteed by county and 30 percent of their own, and one that would utilize bond financing through the improvement authority that is guaranteed by the county.
”We look to mitigate any of the risks,” said Mr. Miller. As such, they will at the financial viability of the solar company, as well as a security amount that would be there to protect the bonds.
They’re planning to put out the RFP in September.
