By SUSAN RANDALL

Casa Grande Dispatch

July 9, 2010

The Casa Grande Elementary School District will have two schools running on sunlight by December.

Administrative Services Manager Kevin Kelty told the Casa Grande Elementary School District Governing Board Tuesday that the district could not have afforded to install a solar system on its own, but it applied in November 2009 for Arizona Public Service Co.’s cash incentives program and received approval for a 275,000-kilowatt solar system at Cholla Elementary School.

APS will pay solar-product provider Solar City $675,000 in incentive funds for the $2.4 million system, which should begin operating in October and provide almost all of Cholla’s energy needs.

The district will have no up-front costs, Kelty said, and will be able to buy the solar energy at 9 cents a kilowatt-hour for 15 years, which is less than it pays now (10 to 15 cents a kwh, depending on usage factors).

APS identified additional funding for solar projects in January, and the district applied for a three-phase project at Cactus Middle School. The first phase, a 345,000-kilowatt solar system, has been approved and will provide almost half of the middle school’s energy needs, also at 9 cents a kwh.

APS will pay $1.1 million toward the second system, which will cost Solar City $3.2 million to build.

Both systems will be built on district property north of Cholla School. Solar City will begin construction in August.

Cholla’s system is scheduled to begin generating electricity in October, Kelty said, and Cactus’ system in December.

At the end of the 15 years, CGESD may renegotiate another contract with Solar City, purchase the equipment at market price or have Solar City remove it.

Energy audit saves

Kelty said the district lowered its energy use by more than 1 million kwhs between June 2008 and May 2009, saving roughly $70,000 in energy cost over the previous year.

It did this by completing an energy audit; developing an energy management policy; installing basic energy-management equipment at three campuses that did not already have them; changing from single-campus, dial-up systems to a districtwide, Web-based system of control; upgrading the energy management software on some campuses; and creating control zones for gyms, administrative areas, music rooms and other areas.

Between June 2009 and May 2010 the district reduced its energy usage by 3.4 million kwhs, saving $222,200, even with rising energy rates.

It did this with equipment upgrades: replacing classroom units and piping at Casa Grande Middle School; replacing the evaporative coolers on the CGMS auditorium with energy-efficient air-conditioning units; retrofitting 40-watt magnetic ballast lighting with 32-watt electronic ballasts and bulbs; installing energy management control upgrades at the rest of the campuses; installing variable-speed drives on all large motors districtwide and on the air-conditioning units at Desert Willow and Evergreen schools; and installing a pulse meter at Saguaro School to help regulate demand usage. It will be a pilot for possible installations at all the schools.

“It has the potential to save a lot of money,” Kelty said.

The district also changed to large-team summer cleaning to shut down multiple campuses when not being cleaned, saving $40,000 last summer. It established after-hours settings in zones for evening cleaning and is refining a large-team approach for daily cleaning.

Kelty said that during this two-year period, the district added square footage and energy use at the transportation and administration buildings and the gymnasiums at Cholla and Cottonwood schools and still saved “considerable amounts of energy.”

“Our EPA Energy Star average rating has increased from 12 to 41 on a scale of 1 to 100. Seven of our buildings are now at or exceed the national average of 50 for schools.”

Board President John J. Klein Jr. said energy savings will free up more money for academics.