Two Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. schools will be more energy efficient by the end of 2017.
The Southern Indiana Career & Technical Center and Plaza Park International Prep Academy will have solar panel fields installed and operating by Dec. 31.
The EVSC partnered with Newburgh- based Energy Systems Group to complete a study in examining which schools would be the best fit for solar fields and give the greatest return.
The Southern Indiana Career & Technical Center, located at 1901 Lynch Rd., and Plaza Park International Prep Academy, located at 7301 Lincoln Ave., were selected for a few reasons.
Deciding factors included investigating the EVSC’s largest facilities
in terms of energy usage, where kilowatt hours are the most expensive and where land is available for solar fields. Another factor, EVSC Superintendent David Smith said, was connectivity.
The two schools will put one megawatt of energy “on the grid,” which will go directly into the two facilities, Smith said, to help reduce peak demand times.
“There is no out-of-pocket expense for us,” Smith said of installing the solar fields.
EVSC officials anticipate receiving about $6.4 million after the solar fields are paid for.
“The fields will not cost us a penny to put in because basically all the fields will be paid for by the energy savings that we accrue,” Smith said.
Officials did not specify the number of solar panels or the amount of land required for the two schools.
Smith said Senate Bill 309 requires the solar fields to be operating by Dec. 31, and to provide 30 years of 100 percent savings.
One year of energy production, according to Smith, will be the equivalent
of:
❚ Energy usage for 161 homes for one year
❚ 1.6 million pounds of coal burned
❚ 519 tons of waste recycled instead of dumped in a landfill Smith is “grateful for the opportunity.”
“In addition to reducing our footprint, in addition to getting money over a 30-year period that we can use for other initiatives, we think it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “It clearly will be a learning opportunity for students, so we think it’s a win all the way around.”