The re-rescheduled end for SunPower/CCUSD’s solar project seems to finally have come into view. This $3.8M project is to go online early next year, if everything goes as planned.
A Penny Saved…
After the required testing, I am curious to see the savings the School District actually will receive from its solar project. We are hearing from the campaign trail that it will generate $8.5M into the General Fund – without raising taxes one dollar. This figure only is an estimate, based on what the School District will receive from the California Solar Initiative’s five-year payment plan and the 20-year savings estimates used to sell the project. If $8.5M turns out to be correct, much of the District’s projected savings would have to be divided over the 25-year life of the project, not as a one-time General Fund payment, as the statement implies.
Actual Savings, Unknown
There have been large solar installations in the South Bay that have yet to prove they are as cost-efficient as their earlier projected savings. Two examples of this cloudy accounting are the Port of Los Angeles and Santa Monica College solar panel installations. While bringing their large solar projects online, they initiated other multiply energy savings at their facilities, including new boilers and energy-efficient lighting.
These other savings hide what savings their solar projects generated. All energy savings were mixed together in their energy savings reports. There was no real way to determine if the previous savings estimates, used to sell these solar projects, came to fruition.
Warmed-Over Air
Once our solar project is running, I want our District to separate the savings generated by our solar project from all other energy-saving efforts.
Only then will we, as a community, learn if the estimated savings given for this project ($8.5M) will materialize. Or were the industry-driven estimates of cost-savings inflated to gain community support?
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
