Schools

Schools Now Soaking Up Solar Options

County-wide solar energy plan is revealed with Middletown schools feasibility results.

Some light was shed on the prospects of bringing solar energy to six Middletown schools at last night’s Middletown Township Board of Education workshop meeting.

A small audience of residents gathered to listen to a presentation given by Birdsall Engineering’s Jerry Genna about the Monmouth County Improvement Authority Renewable Energy Program solar initiative on tap for the schools.

It’s an initiative township officials have been touting and are implementing.

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They have been encouraging the schools to jump on the solar bandwagon, seeing it as a win for cost effectiveness in light of ever-increasing energy costs and their strain on budgets.

Genna, who is one of three professional consultants hired by the county to study the county-wide Renewable Energy plan, told the audience that utility rates now increase an average of 4 percent every year.

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“What solar can do is cap and/or improve that cost,” he said. “About a year-and-a-half ago, the Monmouth County Freeholders asked the Improvement Authority to look into this. Then we were hired.”

The cost of the feasibility consultants’ contracts was not revealed. Exact savings could not be pinpointed.

However, finance consultant Heather Litzbaum, of Gabel Associates, said that for the Middletown schools project, over the standard 15-year duration of the contract, a maximum savings of $2.6 million could be realized and a minimum of $893,000. “We don’t know what the actual PPA (energy cost) rate is going to be," she said. "But we think it will be between 7 and 12 cents per kilowatt hour.”

Middletown schools would represent roughly 18 percent of the total county package project.

Some residents wondered if, at a prospective minimum savings of about $60,000 a year, the comprehensive installation and/or any negative aspects of the project would make it worth what could be such an insignificant savings in the end.

Benefits, Genna said, would be the tax credits and federal incentives incurred with the implementation of a green project.

Should the solar panels be installed on the property of the six designated Middletown schools, Genna said that 13 percent of those schools’ utility bills would be offset by a lower-cost energy. Standard electricity providers would still be used, but would provide 87 percent as opposed to 100 of the utility. Middletown uses Jersey Central Power and Light Co. as well as another standard provider, Board Administrator/Secretary Amy Gallagher said.

The solar would be the third.

The feasibility studies, design, panels and installation are free to the participants of the Improvement Authority’s program. If the go-ahead is given by the school district, then requests for proposals would be advertised and a private provider/developer, otherwise known as a Power Purchase Agreement agent (PPA) would bid on the projects and offer rates. The designated PPA then sells the energy to the schools at a lower-than-standard tariff rate. The PPA also maintains and insures the panels and fixtures, something about which residents expressed concern.

On the issue of its property value effects with respect to the “view” from neighboring residences, Middletown Township Administrator Anthony Mercantante said that the panels exist on many home roofs and in back yards and “there’s nothing you can do about it.”

He added that they absorb rather than reflect energy, so any concerns about annoying light reflections should be abated by that notion.

While actual savings are difficult to project, the consultants said that there must be a certain percentage of projected savings, by law, in order for a PPA to qualify.

From an engineering perspective, Genna said that the Middletown schools’ roofs were not up to par for rooftop installation. Since the duration of the project’s PPA contract is 15 years, for such installation, roofs need to be relatively new and projected to last at least the 15 years.

As a result, the six Middletown schools would employ what’s called the ground “canopy” solar installation.

The 10- to 13-foot tall canopies, under which a school bus can fit, would be set up in parking lots and/or other school property. People can continue to park underneath them and they will have lights on the underside. “We are going to request 14- to 15-foot tall canopies in some cases, though, to accommodate other vehicles, such as delivery trucks, “ Gallagher said.

“Where is the downside to this?” asked Board of Education member Vincent Brand.

A PPA developer defaulting, Genna said.

At the end of the 15-year contract, options moving forward are: system removal at no cost; purchase of the system at fair market value; or renewal of the contract with the PPA (an option currently not available by law).

The school sites for the project are: Middletown high schools and , , and middle schools and .

The presentation and associated documents will be posted on the Middletown Board of Education Web site soon, Gallagher said.

Several municipalities have adopted resolutions supporting the county-wide project, Genna said. Those include: Middletown Township, Tinton Falls, Howell, Upper Freehold township and schools, Marlboro and Eatontown.


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