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Maryland partnership to provide school with solar power

Solar developer and installer Standard Solar is to build a 503-kilowatt solar array for a school system in its home state of Maryland.

On behalf of the St. Mary’s County Public School System, it will install more than 2,200 solar panels at the George Washington Carver Elementary School in Great Mills along with installation partner Solar Tech of Hollywood, MD.

The system is expected to provide 677,000 kilowatt-hours of power each year – about 80% of the school’s electricity needs.

Construction is set to begin later this month.

Standard Solar is working on the project with its finance partner Perpetual Standard Solar, which is providing a 15-year power purchase agreement to sell up to 30% of the school system’s electricity through solar installations.

The agreement means the school will not face any upfront capital costs for solar installations, buying its power from Perpetual at a discount rate.

Curriculum

George Washington Elementary will be able to add a solar-focused renewable energy program to its science curriculum, with a web-based monitoring system being set up in its central lobby to highlight the daily, weekly and annual solar power generated by the array.

Dr. Michael J. Martirano, superintendent of schools, said, “Project Sunburst is a very important project to St. Mary’s County Public Schools, not only in the cost savings that we will recognize but it is a key component in our green school initiative where we are able to provide educational opportunities to our students, staff, and community which promote the use of our sustainable resources.”

Perpetual Standard Solar is selling solar renewable energy credits from the project to Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, Inc., to contribute to the project’s financing.

Sonja Cox, SMECO’s CFO and Senior Vice President of Financial, Economic, and Employee Services, said: “As more and more solar projects are developed, SMECO customer-members will benefit from locally produced power that helps the Co-op meet its goal of investing in renewable energy.”