Local schools shining light on solar panels

Buy a hot dog at an Interlake High School Saints game this fall and save the Earth.

Really?

Well, at least save some electricity.

That's because Interlake's new concession stand will be powered by solar energy. Interlake is one of 12 schools, including Redmond High and Thomas Jefferson High in Auburn, to receive grants from Puget Sound Energy (PSE) for solar panels. The utility plans to give out at least 10 more grants to schools in the next few years.

"There seems to be a lot of demand and excitement in the schools," said PSE spokesman Andy Wappler. "[Solar] is like the 'It Girl' of energy."

Solar panels act as an additional source of electricity for the main power grid. If the panels can produce more energy than the home or building (or concession stand) needs, the extra energy is sent to the main grid for use by others. The producers then receive energy credits on their next bill.

Seattle City Light has about 100 customers using solar power. The utility installed solar panels at nine schools, with help from Bonneville Environmental Foundation, which also worked with PSE on its grants. The City Light panels are primarily for education, all generating fewer than 2 kilowatts and funded with donations from City Light's Green Power Program.

Like City Light's solar panels, the main goal of PSE's program is education, not production. Most panels installed through the school grants are 1- to 2-kilowatt systems. Even Interlake's 4-kilowatt system would not produce a significant amount of the school's overall electricity. When construction finishes in September, Bellevue district officials hope the panels will completely power the concession stand.

The PSE and City Light grants come with a kiosk where students can monitor the panel's production. All the data from the kiosks are uploaded to the Web for anyone to see.

"A lot of people have heard about solar panels," said Rina Fa'amoe, Bellevue School District's energy and safety coordinator. "[This program] is a way to get students something to learn from but also to get the community involved."

For PSE, which provides electricity service for nine counties — Whatcom, Skagit, Island, Jefferson, Kitsap, King, Kittitas, Pierce and Thurston — the grants help spread the word about solar power. About 300 PSE customers — residential and business — use solar energy. Wappler said about half of those installed their panels in the past year.

Mark Turner, a photographer in Bellingham and a PSE customer, installed a 4.5-kilowatt system on his roof two months ago and estimated it would produce three-quarters of his annual electricity consumption. The panels cost him $33,000.

"It might take 30 years to actually pay for the panels," Turner said. "You can't look at it as a short-term investment. ... It seems to be the right thing to do from an environmental standpoint."

Of PSE's solar customers, only about 25 are nonresidential; City Light has about 10, of which the largest is Shoreline Community College, with an 18-kilowatt system.

Redmond High School just received a $150 check, thanks to its 1.1- kilowatt panel, installed in 2006 with a PSE grant. The school, which requires 350 kilowatts to operate, does not consume any of the energy the panel produces. It receives credits on its electricity bill as well as cash from the state's "net-metering" program, which pays solar-energy producers for every watt of solar energy they produce in a year.

In the fall, the Lake Washington School District will install panels at two more schools and expand the Redmond High panel system to include a wind turbine.

Chuck Collins, a consultant contracted by PSE to be resource-conservation manager for Lake Washington district, designed the Redmond High solar program and is looking for other ways to reduce the district's energy bill.

Evergreen Junior High's panels will cost the district $200,000, but, Collins points out, they ultimately will pay for themselves.

"The [junior high] building is supposed to last 40 years," said Collins. "If we can pay off a significant portion of the bill in 15 years, that's a win for the district."

Other school districts in the country are trying to use solar power as a primary source of electricity. California's Milpitas Unified School District near San Jose recently announced a plan to create a 3.4-megawatt (or 3,400-kilowatt) solar-energy system that would supply 75 percent of the district's electricity needs.

None of the PSE or City Light projects is as ambitious as the one in Milpitas, but Collins is working to make all schools "zero energy" through efficiency and renewable energy.

"[There are] a bunch of fallacies of 'solar doesn't work in Washington,' " said Collins. "We're knocking those down, one by one."

Jeff Raderstrong: 206-464-3301 or jraderstrong@seattletimes.com