By Amy Ash Nixon
Caledonian Record
Thursday, May 10, 2018
ST. JOHNSBURY — The St. Johnsbury School Board has unanimously voted to join a solar project being built on a former quarry site behind the Green Mountain Mall.
Board member Tony Greenwood, after being told the school had zero upfront costs, and that the panels would not be owned by the school district so no ownership worries would come with the project — and that the board could expect immediate energy savings — wanted to know what the catch was.
The board approved having the superintendent enter into a contract with the company at its meeting last week.
The project will be a 333 kW DC solar electric generation facility, and the load is expected to “offset 95 percent of the electric load at the school under its current load profile, and 100 percent of the by-passable costs from Green Mountain Power.”
The system will be interconnected to the existing Green Mountain Power utility grid to provide net metering credits. A portion of those credits will be shared with the school, “resulting in immediate savings under the current Vermont Net Metering rules,” the proposal lays out.
Over the 25-year life of the project the school has now agreed to, Norwich Solar estimates St. Johnsbury School District will save $434,907.
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