Swampscott schools set to go solar

SWAMPSCOTT – If students’ goals for the summer include catching some rays, they might want to stay in school.Construction is set to begin within the next month on a $2.5 million, developer-financed project to retrofit the middle school and high school with solar panels that will provide up to a quarter of the schools’ energy needs for the next 20 years.”There’s no out-of-pocket (costs by the town),” said Town Administrator Andrew Maylor. “(Developers) get a guaranteed revenue of energy, we get reduced-cost energy.”The project is a partnership between the Swampscott schools and Johnson Controls of Chicago, a technology company that produces energy-efficient equipment, including solar panels and geothermal technology.The terms of the final Power Purchase Agreement will be finalized this week, but according to Maylor and a press representative from Johnson, the industrial technology company will finance the construction and “own” and maintain the panels.In return, the town agrees to buy the power produced from the panels at a specific, below-market rate for 20 years, Maylor said.The town will have the option to buy the equipment at the end of 20 years, Maylor said.Engineer Patrick Retelle, of Solar Design Associates, of Harvard, said that the project includes placing 1,666 photovoltaic panels (solar panels that convert light energy to power) that will produce 455,736 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy annually on the roof of the high school and 294 panels that will produce 81,320 kWh of energy annually on the roof of the middle school.The panels will be spread over almost all parts of both buildings, according to preliminary plans submitted to the Building Department.The 537,056 kWh – the total amount of energy expected to be produced annually by the solar panels at both schools _ equates to the annual energy consumption of approximately 50 American homes or the avoidance of 322 tons of carbon dioxide, Retell said, adding “it would take approximately 48 acres of forest to sequester (capture) this amount of carbon dioxide.”Construction at both sites is scheduled to begin during the second week of June, according to Swampscott Public Schools Facility Director Garrett Baker.Solar inverters, which convert the energy produced by the panels to power that can be used by the schools, will be installed first, and then the day after school ends, the solar panels will arrive, he said.Retelle said that the goal is to produce power by the end of the summer. And yes, “even on cloudy days, [solar] arrays can and do work,” Retelle said.He noted that diffused sunlight will still be collected by the panels.Maylor said that the arrangement estimates that the power produced will supply up to a quarter of the schools’ energy needs.He also said that by locking in a set price for the next 20 years, the town will mitigate annual increases in the cost of energy.Retelle said that his firm estimates utility prices as increasing 5 percent annually based on historical records.The units will also display up-to-the-minute information of the panels’ collection and conversion of energy that can be used in education, according to Retelle.”It’s is an education tool for students and the entire community,” Retelle said. “This will make renewable energy easier to understand and possibly motivate homeowners to consider this technology once they see that it is a reliable and simple alternative energy source.”But also, it will be pretty cool.”It’s a pretty significant project,” said Maylor. “Certainly not a lot of schools or school systems that will be able to claim that they produce their own power.”