Soon Solar Will Meet Rialto Unified School Districts Power Needs

Sun Edison, Inc. the world’s largest renewable energy development company, announced that it has signed a 20 year power purchase agreement with the Rialto Unified School District in California for 8.4 megawatts (MW) DC of solar power. As part of the agreement, Sun Edison will install solar canopies above the parking lots of all 28 schools in the district.

The school district expects the solar systems to generate a 20 percent savings on their electricity bill, which equates to $1 million saved in the first year alone. Over the course of the 20-year contract, the school district expects to generate an estimated $30 million dollars savings on energy costs.

“The Rialto Unified School District is taking a financially savvy approach to control their energy costs,” said Sam Youneszadeh, Sun Edison managing director of Western U.S. commercial and industrial. “The Sun Edison solar canopies will generate clean, affordable energy while providing welcome shade for cars in the parking lot. Sun Edison solar solutions are quick to deploy and bring our customers real, immediate energy savings for years to come.”

“These SunEdison solar systems have the potential to generate millions of dollars in savings for our school district over the next 20 years,” said Dr. Cuauhtémoc Avila, Rialto Unified School District superintendent. “These savings can be used to fund other critical needs, and the solar systems can be incorporated into the curriculum as real life examples of innovative science at work. SunEdison has a great track record of solar installations for schools throughout California and we’re delighted to be working with them on this project.”

Another benefit will be through a ciriculum that will be built around this solar project. The funds and savings will be used in part to give students skills and training to enter the field of Solar Energy. Mohammad Islam said that this project has been a long time in the works and that it is nice to see the fruits of their labor becoming a reality.

Rialto’s solar systems are expected to generate enough electricity each year to power more than 1,300 homes. By choosing solar, the school district is eliminating the emission of an estimated 21 million pounds of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of taking more than 2,000 cars off the road.

The first school to kick off this project is Carter High School and construction began during the winter break. If the company can work without having to use phases the canopy mounted solar systems are expected to be completed in the second half of 2017.

Operation and maintenance of these solar power plants will be performed by SunEdison Services, which provides global 24/7 asset management, monitoring and reporting services.