Solar for WI K-12 Schools: Resource Center
We've collected resources and put together video content with the intent to assist school administrative teams, boards, staff, students, facilities crew, or other school affiliates (“Solar Planning Teams”) throughout all stages in the solar project development process. We present information about the technology, site analysis, project finance, and procurement strategies used to deliver on-site solar. You can use the resources from start to finish or you can select certain section a la carte, based on your school's needs. Email evonne@midwestrenew.org with any questions. Thanks for joining us!Fundamental Resources for a WI School Solar Project
- Dr. Ronald Russ, Superintendent Merton Community School District - Located in Waukesha County, Merton just completed installation of a 389 kW DC PV system in November 2019, which is largely financed through a low-interest loan and is expected to save the district $70,000 in energy costs each year.
- Andy Weiland, Business Administrator, Oregon School District - The district has had several PV systems on various schools for several years, and is now planning to incorporate a solar PV system over 500kW into new construction of a net zero elementary school
- Lee Black, Buildings & Grounds Director, Darlington Community School District - In January 2016, the district completed the installation of a 156 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) system on the roof of their elementary middle school building. The system is expected to generate approximately 200,000 kWh of electricity per year, or about 19% of the entire district’s use, saving them about $12,500 in usage charges and roughly $3,250 in demand charges.
- Merton Community School District (2019) - 389kW DC - installed on both Merton Intermediate and Merton Primary, saving the district $70,000 annually.
- Oregon School District (2020) - 649kW DC on Forest Edge Elementary School, the first net-zero school in WI.
- Madison Area Technical College (2018) - 1.85 MW
- Darlington Elementary/Middle School (2015)- 156 kW
- Northland Pines School District: Elementary, Middle, & High School (2017) - 331 total kW
- NABCEP Certified Installer Locator (website) - online database of professional certified solar installers
- MREA Business Member Directory (website) - list of our business members, searchable by PV installer, among other categories
- Focus on Energy Trade Allies (website) - searchable database of contractors and service providers who partner with Focus to deliver energy efficiency and renewable energy products and expertise to WI residents and businesses.
The next step in PV project development is analyzing your school's energy use-- meaning you need to get your hands on some of those utility bills! This section will lay out some of the steps your solar planning team should take to understand the school's energy use and explains how this information informs the PV development process. In this module, we introduce energy analysis topics including: energy generation mix, load profiles, utility tariffs, rate designs, PV system sizing, and energy analysis tools.
It's important to note, that you need not develop and analyze your whole solar PV system internally. This section is intended to ensure you have a basic understanding in how solar will impact your energy use and electricity bills. Most solar contractors will provide you a site assessment and financial analysis free of charge. While schools are required to procure solar through a competitive bidding process, you can still choose to consult with a contractor early on in the process for site assessments and financial analysis, In the top of the course, we've compiled resources to help you find a contractor early on in the process.
Topic Shorts
This 11 minute topic short outlines the basic factors of utility billing by exploring different utility rate designs and schedules, walking through an example utility bill, and differentiating between consumption and demand.
Featuring: Nick Matthes, MREA Project Manager
When you install solar PV, your school will be put onto a unique interconnection arrangement, depending on which utility territory you reside in. This 9 minute topic short explores those different types of utility interconnection arrangements (i.e. net metering, value of solar tariffs, feed-in tariffs, and community solar) and their impact on your PV production valuation and compensation.
Featuring: Nick Matthes, MREA Project Manager
It is important to understand not only your school's utility bills, but when, where, and how efficiently this electricity is being used. This 7 minute topic short gives an overview of common energy sources as well as school energy uses and load profiles. It also explores the implications of a site's energy mix and load profile in relationship to demand charges. All of these factors are taken into account when determining PV system sizing and location.
Featuring: Nick Matthes, MREA Solar Project Manager
The purpose of this 15 minute topic short is to break down the importance of correctly calculating your weighted average cost of energy ($/kWh) as part of the process of modeling financial assumptions for a PV project. It will briefly go through how to go about calculating this number from your utility bill data, as well as the implications if not done correctly. When a contractor 'runs the numbers' on your solar project, they will take into account all sorts of different charges on your energy bill, including different time of use rates, other fees, and more. Most often, this will not include demand charges as it is much more difficult to analyze and predict demand charge savings (although you will likely see demand charge savings). This topic is intended to give you an understanding on where this final number comes from that your contractor will use.
Featuring: Eric Rehm, MREA Solar Finance Manager
This 33 minute video will go through a case study example of utilizing energy and utility data in designing your PV system. You will learn about Madison College's PV system, how they uniquely designed it using their energy use data, and what the resulting impacts have been on their utility bills by looking at real system production data.
Featuring: Kenneth A. Walz, Ph.D., AEE REP
Science, Engineering, and Renewable Energy Instructor
Madison Area Technical CollegeSection Resources
- PV Watts (Online Tool)- used to calculate site-specific system production and solar irradiance, by NREL
- Solar Project Builder (Online Tool)- MREA financial modeler for PV systems
- System Advisor Model (SAM) (Tool)- NREL's advanced PV system modeler, including financial
- Your Commercial Bills Explained (website)- Explains different charges and elements to a standard commercial bill, by Alliant Energy
- Understanding Demand Charges (website)- Explains different demand related charges on utility bills, by WE Energies
- Net Metering Basics (video)- watch this video, by EnergySage, to get a basic understanding of how net metering works and could impact your PV project
- EIA (website) - U.S. energy information website
- Energy.gov (website) - lists energy pricing trends and news
- Municipal Energy Efficiency Technical Assistance Program (MEETAP) - As part of the Office of Energy Innovation, MEETAP helps provide technical project assistance and a second opinion to schools working with contractors on energy efficiency projects.
- K-12 School District Benchmarking Analysis (PDF) - MEETAP developed energy use benchmarks that school districts can use to compare their existing energy consumption and evaluate energy savings opportunities.
- Focus on Energy K-12 School Program - Focus provides financial incentives for equipment upgrades that deliver measurable energy and financial savings for school facilities and can get your school in touch with an Energy Advisor
- ARC (tool) - a free, downloadable and scalable technology platform that provides unique tools to collect, manage, analyze, score and communicate information about the operational performance of spaces, buildings, places and entire portfolios. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).