San Jose Unified School District Implements Solar Power at Four High Schools

Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 8/1/2007 9:23:00 AM

California's San Jose Unified School District is joining the green movement by unveiling what it says may be the largest solar power and energy-efficient programs in U.S. K-12 education.

The program, which starts in September at four of the system's six high schools, includes the construction of solar arrays on the school roofs and parking canopies, and will initially generate two megawatts of power, eventually rising to five meagawatts. Over the 25-year lifespan of the project, the district expects to save $25 million in energy costs and reduce its utility power demand by 25 percent. Overall, the district estimates it will cut the equivalent of 37,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

In the coming year, San Jose—working with corporate partners Chevron Energy Solutions and Bank of America–plans to make additional energy-saving upgrades to its lighting system and other infrastructure.

Like many districts that have gone green, San Jose will take advantage of the schools’ new solar energy panels by adding an environmental component to its curriculum. ."There's community learning, which to me is symbolic; then there's the educational component for kids," says Superintendent Don Iglesias. "For the community's public institutions, we can't just preach it, we have to live it. This is a step in the right direction. Kids are watching what we do and what we say."

Students, for example, will study and analyze the effect of solar energy's cost efficiencies. "Kids that are in high school that are potential mathematicians and scientists will be able to glean from [the monitoring of solar power production] and see its physical science at its best."

Though San Jose's school board studied solar power for at least five years, the stiff price for solar hardware was initially an obstacle, Iglesias explains. "[Now] the cost of the hardware basically is being financed through the Bank of America at a fixed rate,” he says. The hardware cost for the first four schools is $18.1 million. Had the district financed the project itself, it would have faced an unrealistic price tag—including interest—of more than $30 million.

San Jose has two other advantages, the superintendent says: Mayor Chuck Reed has challenged the area's Silicon Valley companies to establish projects locally, which motivates public and private partnerships.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, has promoted solar and other alternative energy tax incentives, motivating companies like Chevron and Bank of America, partners of the San Jose Unified School District. The deal connecting those corporate entities to the school district originated with a high school science teacher, Iglesias says. In her classroom, the teacher "looked at energy and ways to save energy; and part of it was a project she had going with her kids.

"They're the ones who pulled in Chevron Energy Solutions," Iglesias says. "That's where it came from—the classroom."

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