My thoughts on the new solar panels at Ansonia Local Schools

Ansonia High School added 1/3rd of a mega Watt of solar electric generation on the roof. That’s Ansonia Ohio; believe it or not; we get a decent amount of sun here in Ohio! Darke County is named after William Darke, not the amount of local sunlight. I want to congratulate Ansonia for taking the initiative to have a really nice sized solar electric system installed on their high school.

Although our address is technically Union City, “near Ansonia” is what shows up on Facebook when I update my status from home. Such a large solar PV system and so close to home, of course I wish we’d have gotten a shot at the installation, but it’s encouraging to see nice jobs like this taking place in the neighborhood!

Ansonia Schools didn’t have to pay for the system to be installed, it’s owned and installed by a third party. The reason that is done on schools and public buildings is because tax credits and other incentives don’t apply to non-profit organizations.

The art of investing in a solar energy system on someone else’s roof is called the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Solar energy systems, especially solar electric systems, allow for distributed generation. Distributed generation is the opposite of large centralized power plants that distribute electricity over miles of power lines. In this case the ‘generation’ is distributed rather than the ‘electricity’ which opens up more direct investment opportunities for individuals and communities. More direct investments have the potential for greater returns.

This is where it gets interesting.

The PPA model can be adopted by any group of investors, not just large companies. For instance if private residents of the school district were to form a private PPA with the public school and invest in the initial costs then the revenue from the power purchased by the school would come right back into the community rather than to a company hundreds of miles away.

And the beauty of solar electric systems is that once care has been taken to ensure a quality installation there is no fuel to buy, or burn, and only limited maintenance every 15 years or so. Good systems last for 40 years. Really, it’s a financial investment that makes sense both financially and environmentally.

I think it would be great to see communities and schools form energy partnerships across Darke County and the entire Miami Valley. It has the potential for both schools and communities to reap the benefits for many years to come.

Those are my thoughts. What do you think?

- Sam Garber

We’ve got the article posted over at Darke Journal as well. You can join in on the discussion there too!

http://www.darkejournal.com/2012/01/guest-post-from-sam-garber-on-solar.html