SOLON to provide 7.7MW solar capacity for Arizona schools

May 7, 2010

Arizona-based solar manufacturer and developer SOLON Corporation is to provide 7.7 megawatts of solar systems for schools in its home state this summer.

The company is to provide 5MW of projects for the Deer Valley Unified School District, for which it completed a 1MW project back in December.

It will also provide nearly 2.7MW of solar generating systems for the Paradise Valley Unified School District.

With SOLON’s SSA option, rolling out more projects has become even more affordable.” - Christy Agosta, Deer Valley Unified School District

SOLON, which is part of German company SOLON Group, will be providing the systems through Solar Service Agreements (SSAs) in which the school districts will avoid upfront system purchase costs.

Instead, the schools will buy electricity at a fixed rate from SOLON, which will also oversee operation and maintenance.

“Clean, reliable”

Christy Agosta, board member for the Deer Valley Unified School District, said: “Our first project is the largest of its kind in the U.S. and several schools are running on the clean, reliable solar energy it delivers.

“With SOLON’s SSA option, rolling out more projects has become even more affordable. The district’s administration, the Deer Valley community and the students are thrilled we are building our clean energy future,” added Ms Agosta.

Work on the Deer Valley systems is set to begin in June 2010, with expectations that the systems will offset around 8,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

The Paradise Valley projects are set to begin installation this month (May 2010). SOLON will be engineering and constructing the systems.

Both the school districts are expected to have their systems completed by the end of the year. SOLON, which manufactures its own solar modules at its facility in Tucson, Arizona, will be working with the local utility APS to connect up the projects.

Dan Alcombright, Regional Vice President and General Manager of North America, SOLON Corporation. “SOLON brings a distinctive value to the schools in our home state of Arizona, and around the country, by offering a model for system financing that makes going solar a real option for school districts.”