Middle School to Save Between 4k to 6k a Year in Energy Costs

Dana Johnston, project manager of the 126 solar panels installed on the gymnasium roof of , explained to the school committee just how to read results from the website solrenviw.com. Thus far, about $2,000 has been saved since the installation was made this past July. For the month of February, $113.73 has been saved.

“That’s not bad, considering it cost us nothing,” committee member Tom Golota said.

Last February, the solar panels were installed with a $150,000 federal stimulus grant.

The panels are 205 watts apiece. Fifteen cents is saved with every kilowatt-hour produced by the panels. According to Electric-echo.com, a kilowatt-hour is the amount of power consumed or generated over a period of one hour. A full sun is 1,000 watts per meter.

Johnston, who works for Fall River Electrical Associates, Inc., estimated that about 31,000 kilowatt-hours will be produced this year, enough to run four homes.

While superintendent Dr. Patricia Ansay said that projected savings for the year would be around $6,000, Johnston gave a more conservative estimate of $4,800, noting unpredictability in weather.

With the heavy snows in January, not as many kilowatt-hours of electricity were produced, lowering savings to $73.80. But with summer on the way, the sun will help produce more.

“June is usually the best month because the days are longest and there’s a lot of clear days,” Johnston said.

“If for some reason the system is producing more electricity than the school is using, you sell it back to National Grid,” Johnston said. “But the school is so large compared to the system size, that will really never happen. Maybe in the summer day when the school is empty, but you no matter what, you always have lights on.”

The panels should last for 25 years, and are waranteed by the manufacturer.