Solar-powered schools may be on the horizon in KCSD

By Christopher Miller

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – The Keystone Central School Board listened to a presentation given by representatives of McClure Company for possible installation and illumination of district buildings and schools by solar power.

“We are a 71 year old construction management firm that has done energy projects for schools all around the state,” said Alyssa Wingenfield, VP of Sales & Marketing at McClure Company.

“We’ve partnered with KCSD in 2020 for two energy projects that were highly successful at saving the district $19 million over the next 20 years, and as electric costs are skyrocketing and the prices for solar panels are coming down mixed with tax credits and incentives to go solar, the time is right for thinking about the future.”

Alyssa and her colleague Dip Smith discussed the financial aspects of what a move to solar energy could mean for the district.

“The district right now uses around 4.7 million kilowatt hours per year, and with the system we could design for you, you could create solar energy at one site and use it at another within two miles,” Alyssa said.

The financial aspect would be either entering into a lease agreement to lease the system for five or 30 years, or to buy it outright.

“If you choose to lease it, it would cost $0 out of pocket, including no payments for maintenance of the system, and the district could look at savings around $100,000 per year,” Alyssa said. “And if you choose to do 30 years, after the 30 years the district could have us take the array out, or we can abandon it and it would then become a district asset.”

The panels have a general life of around 40 years, and the warranty for the system would be up in 30.

School board member Jeff Johnston posed the question regarding what the timeframe would be if the board were to move ahead with the project.

“It could take anywhere from three to eight months to design and engineer the system with a total timeline of 12 to 18 months total, start to finish,” Alyssa said. “The slowdown is with the utility company keeping up with demand for solar.”

To sweeten the deal, Alyssa also discussed the possible educational aspects of the project.

“We put TV screens in your school of the live production so students can watch, and webcam feeds of the construction and if students are interested we actually encourage them to shadow our engineers and construction…we’ve had teachers bring classes on to the job site to see what is involved in building a solar array, and we could involve KCSD students in the build project,” Alyssa said.

Board member Elisabeth Lynch then posed the question to the group, “can there be a curriculum for this?”