It is being hailed the “county’s largest solar project” and is taking place at Soquel High School in Santa Cruz County, California. On the school’s online bulletin, they report that installation of the first 1,800 solar panels begun the week of 10 November 2008. The school expects construction to be done in December with hopes that the panels will begin generating energy by January of 2009.
Cynthia Hawthorne told The Mercury News, “We’re educating the next stewards of Earth…In this economic climate, and we’re creating green jobs.”
The school district got a 25-year deal that provides around 40 percent of the campus’s power with a guaranteed cost not to exceed the 15 cents per kilowatt that PG&E currently charges them. The Mercury News notes that Santa Cruz City Schools District aims to add solar panels to all of its schools with an estimated savings of $100,000 per year in electrical costs.