Perpetual Energy Systems has announced the completion of a 1.5 MW solar energy project in the Jefferson Union High School District (the District).

The project includes solar arrays at four District high schools – Oceana High School, Terra Nova High School, Westmoor High School and Jefferson High School, all located just south of San Francisco, in the cities of Daly City, Colma, Brisbane and Pacifica, California.

The project, which includes more than 8,500 solar panels, promotes each school's energy independence and will substantially reduce costs. During its first full year of operation, the system is estimated to produce 2,300,000 kilowatt hours of clean energy, equal to removing approximately 270 cars from the road annually.

"Enabling four high schools to 'go solar' is very exciting for the company," said Joseph Rodriguez, president and CEO of Perpetual. "This project will not only help the District to reduce its energy dependency on the grid and provide affordable energy costs but it will also create an opportunity to educate students about the benefits of renewable solar energy."

Steven Fuentes, Associate Superintendent of Business Services, states "in these difficult financial times for public education in California, our district is very excited to begin working with Perpetual. Perpetual will allow us to implement a program that will bring in much needed revenue while providing services to our district we would otherwise not have staff to accomplish."

The project costs required no upfront capital outlay from the District and were funded by Perpetual through the use of project financing, sponsor equity and federal renewable energy tax credits. The environmental attributes of the system, including the renewable energy certificates (RECs) generated by the system, will be owned by Perpetual.

The District will purchase the renewable energy generated by the system from Perpetual pursuant to a power purchase agreement at a fixed discount to what the District would have had to pay the utility company for the same energy.

With the activation of the District project, Perpetual has successfully completed the financing and development of more than 9 MW of solar systems, all of which it owns and operates, powering commercial, educational, municipal and industrial facilities.

Share This Article With Planet Earth