School District Details Green Energy Plan

A seminar Thursday at outlined various environmentally friendly projects that are in the works at Teaneck's public schools.

Anthony D’Angelo, director of facilities and grounds, began by discussing eco-friendly and cost-saving measures that are already in place in the district, such as a recycling program that has been estimated to generate about $5,000 a year for the township.

The district also has introduced “green” products for cleaning and maintenance and has eliminated certain pesticides.

D’Angelo explained how energy consumption was reduced through the use of timers on exterior lighting, lowered thermostat settings and limited hours of building operation, which allowed lights to be off in common areas for six hours a day.

“We’ve ingrained in all the staff, teachers and the students that when you’re not in a classroom and you don’t need the light on, to shut the lights off,” said D’Angelo, who added that when enough natural light comes into the classroom that there’s no need to operate the lights either.

D’Angelo then highlighted the Energy Savings Improvement Plan (ESIP) projects that were identified in an energy audit that the district received last year through a New Jersey Clean Energy grant.

Some of those projects include lighting upgrades, which D’Angelo said could save up to 30 percent on energy costs, automatic temperature controls, boiler conversions to natural gas and roof-mounted photovoltaic solar panels.

“The financing of this plan that we’re going to be embarking on results in the energy savings themselves paying for the improvement capital cost, so that there will be no increase to the tax levy,” he said.

D’Angelo talked about a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), which entails the installation of ground-mounted structures to support solar panels in areas such as parking lots. He explained that the PPA contractor would install and maintain the systems free of charge, and in return would get to sell the electricity that is generated back to the district at a cost that is less than the public utility company. D’Angelo said that an agreement like this typically is put in place for about 15 years between both parties.  

“Our architects are currently working on schematic designs of where we can put these panels on which parking lots and at which schools because you have to look into the orientation – the parking lanes have to be orientated to the direction of the sun so that the panels can work," he said.

At the next public Board of Education meeting on April 13, Di Cara Rubino Architects will be giving a presentation on the ESIP and the request for the proposal for the PPA, said D’Angelo.

“We’re hoping they’ll be able to present some renderings and images for what they’re proposing on the ground-mounted units in the parking lots, so that they can give the board a sense of what that would look like,” he said.  

Ultimately, D’Angelo said the improvements will pay for themselves. And based on the preliminary studies involving the roof-mounted solar panels that the district will own, the energy that is generated can be sold as solar credits to the utility companies.

“With the PPA there would be no cost because the contractor would bear all of those costs,” he said. “With the [Energy Savings Improvement] Plan, it’ll be mapped out over 15 years, and it’ll show that it will pay for itself. So obviously we’ll have to go out and probably get a 15-year lease purchase to get the monies to start the ball rolling but after the first year – and the architect has done a presentation where he showed the payback from year to year to year – so after the first year, you are seeing payback toward the implementation costs.”