Natick High School Could Save $20K with New Solar Panels

NATICK, MA — Natick High School is planning on starting the 2020 school year off on an energy efficient note and you can see it in the parking lot. The district is installing solar panels over the faculty and visitor parking lot to curb energy use and utility costs in the district. The project is scheduled to be done in time for the start of school.

The energy efficient project has been four years in the making and could save the district money on it's utility bill. Natick's Sustainability Coordinator, Jillian Wilson-Martin, estimates approximately $20,000 in annual utility cost savings to the district. While it's a nice chunk of savings, the money wouldn't go right into the district's pocket, it would be used as credit toward the district's electric bill.

Wilson-Martin said the reason it took so long to get the project off the ground was the state switching it's solar incentive program. The state has started following the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) Program, which supports the development of solar in Massachusetts. The SMART Program is a 1600MW declining block incentive program.

In the Natick, the photovoltaic solar panels will be installed on canopies over the parking lot. In total there are 1,450 panels being installed with a system size of 630 kW DC. The panels will generate more than 600,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean power in addition to the 250,000 kWh of power the building's existing rooftop solar arrays generate.

The combined solar generation will be less than half of the school's annual electricity use, which exceeds 2,000,000 kWh each year.

The trees on the island's in the parking lot will have to be removed so that they don't interfere with the solar panels. Wilson-Martin said a number of the trees on those islands were already dead or dying because they had not been properly planted to begin with. The district will replant the trees next spring, making sure they are correctly planted to thrive in their new spots.