The Fremont Unified School District is negotiating a contract with San Francisco-based Renewable Ventures, a global financier, developer, owner and operator of utility-scale solar power systems, to build what will potentially become the nation’s largest school district-based solar power electricity generator.
Under the terms of the contract, Renewable Ventures Fremont Power will install
solar panels over parking lots, along the perimeter of athletic fields, or on top of structures taller than 9.5 feet (but less than two stories).
The solar panels will be placed at, on or around 13 Fremont schools by early 2010; nine additional sites will be added later, with Renewable Ventures financing and owning the system and selling the power to the school district on a five-year power purchase agreement, or PPA.
The system will be installed by Chevron Energy Solutions, a division of San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corporation dedicated to providing renewable energy solutions, energy efficiency and sustainable design. Costs for construction are estimated at $42 million.
After five years, the school district could extend the PPA for an additional 20 years or purchase the system outright from Renewable Ventures. The district is still negotiating terms that will apply if the first option is chosen, but typically such systems become the property of the school district, corporation or individual on whose property they reside because they are approaching their usable lifetime.
The first option will reportedly save the school district at least $10.7 million. The second, outright purchase, would cost it $61.9 million and could be financed by a bond issue. Alternatively, the systems could potentially be sold for fair market value, according to school district facilities director Therese Gain.
The systems will generate enough electricity to power almost 80 percent of an individual school’s energy needs, and the predetermined rate per kilowatt hour, established by the PPA, would make budgeting easier. Predetermined rates will also bring down costs even more in the future as California’s electricity rates, driven by greenhouse gas emission mandates (to 1990 levels by 2020), cause utilities to recover costs through higher retail electricity rates.
In addition to cost savings, Chevron has also agreed to provide a solar education curriculum for classroom use, which uses the systems as a “living laboratory”, with curriculum materials and education displays at solar sites to display project information and real-time energy production data that helps promote energy awareness.
The school board will have to approve or reject the contract at its August 26 meeting, though the purchase decision can be deferred for five years. Individuals from other solar companies have urged a bidding process, but the district has to make a decision quickly to qualify for up to $13.8 million in solar credits, according to Gain, who added that Chevron is the only firm with design plans the state has pre-approved.