RBUSD solar savings total $1.7 million to date
Solar energy installations across the Redondo Beach Unified School District have added up to $1.7 million in savings over two years of operation. Photo
According to a report before the Redondo Beach Unified School District Board of Education, solar installations at 12 sites across the district have added up to a total cost savings of $1.59 million over two years.
Johnbee Buencamino of PFMG Solar, the school district’s contractor for solar installation, presented the facts and figures for two years of solar installations at the school board meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 24.
Solar installation was approved in 2012 with the passage of Measure Q, a $63 million bond package intended to upgrade the district’s technology infrastructure. Of that, $15 million was budgeted for solar installation. According to the district’s most recent budgeting report in December, $7.26 million of that budget has been spent thus far.
As part of the package, all of the district’s school sites would have solar installation included, creating a 1.626 megawatt network. For comparison’s sake, 1.626 megawatts would power 260 homes, Buencamino said.
Initial electricity savings estimates figured that the district would save $500,000 annually from electricity savings alone.
In fact, solar savings from 2014, the first full year of solar operation at RBUSD, topped out at $881,000. Savings dipped slightly for the second year of operation, totaling $706,414.
Overall, the total solar power generation across all district schools has clocked at 2,628,613 kilowatt hours
The total savings, according to Buencamino, were calculated by combining the difference between the district’s estimated Southern California Energy bill without solar panels; its hard costs for power purchased from SCE with the solar network; and California Solar Rebate revenue, which is calculated at 11.4 cents per kilowatt hour.
Furthermore, the district benefitted from an error in Edison’s billing.
“Edison doesn’t always properly credit accounts to the District,” Buencamino said. “If more solar energy is being generated than is used, that energy is sold back to Edision…we found upon reviewing annual bills, meters at RUHS were not getting credits they deserved.”
After months of back and forth between PFMG and Edison, SCE credited $70,000 to the district.
This level of power generation will not last; the solar installations are estimated to have a .75 percent loss in efficiency per year for its 25 year lifespan. Still, the figures are a boon to the district.
“We’ve already got a $1.6 million payback,” school board member Michael Christensen asked assistant superintendent Janet Redella. “Does that make you happy?”
“Very happy,” Redella laughed.