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.
An important factor in PV project planning is financial modeling of your PV system. Module 5 introduces you to PV ownership options, comparing the risks and opportunities of various ownership models available to WI K-12 schools. We also introduce you to Solar Project Builder, MREA's financial modeling tool. We highly encourage you to use the tool to view, compare, and analyze the financial value and return of various ownership options for your school's PV system.
Again, oftentimes solar contractors can provide you a preliminary proposal featuring a financial analysis along with a free site assessment early on in the process (see examples in topic resources below). However, it is important to have a basic understanding yourself of all of this so you can understand how they reached the numbers and conclusions they did. This topic is intended to help provide you that information.
Topic Shorts
This 12 minute topic short gives a brief overview of the various financing and ownership options available nationally for PV systems. It also provides an introductory discussion on the importance of aligning your financing options with land, capital, or sustainability goals.
Featuring: Eric Rehm, MREA Solar Finance Manager
Now that you have a basic understanding of ownership models in general, this 23 minute video will discuss the common ownership models specifically available to Wisconsin K-12 school PV systems. It delves into the pros and cons of each ownership type, compares them with one another, and explains the financial returns of the different options using data from installed school PV systems.
Featuring: Michael Barnett, PE
Senior Project Engineer, HGAThis 8 minute topic short gives a brief pricing breakdown of the different components culminating in your PV project (i.e. PV modules, installation labor, profit, ...). It discusses the trends in pricing of each of those components as well as introduces a tool we encourage you to play around with to help your school estimate and understand those prices in relation to your own PV system.
Featuring: Amanda Schienebeck, MREA Program Manager
The 16 minute topic short provides schools with an overview of available funding opportunities, incentives, and tax credit policies available in some markets. It also discusses how these items can influence the cost and value of your solar PV system. We encourage you to watch this topic short to start the process of figuring out which of these are available for your school's project.
Featuring: Eric Rehm, MREA Solar Finance Manager
Please watch this 25 minute video to get an understanding of how to utility the MREA tool, Solar Project Builder. The accuracy of any financial modeling is dependent on the assumption values put into the model. Therefore, it is critical to focus on those assumptions when modelling the economics of your PV project. As you develop your project, we encourage you to fine tune these assumptions in order to maximize the accuracy of the financial modeling projections.
Featuring: Eric Rehm, Solar Finance Manager
Topic Resources
- Board of Commissioners of Public Lands (BCPL) Loan Program - BCPL offers fixed rate loans with competitive interest rates, the application process is extremely simple, and borrowers pay no application fees, prepayment penalties, or any other fees. Interest earned on the loan program is distributed annually to fund public school library materials throughout WI.
- Third Party PV Financing (website) - SEIA put together a basic informational guide with resources to help you research if a third party option is right (and available) for you
- Understanding Third-Party Ownership Financing Structures for Renewable Energy - a collection of resources explaining third-party financing options
- Solar Leases & Solar PPAs (website) - basic informational guide about these financing options (if available in your area), by EnergySage
- Terms, Trends, and Insights on PV Project Finance in the United States, 2018 (PDF)- An NREL report on market insights that reflect the state of the project finance market for solar PV in the U.S. as of the third quarter of 2018
- Non-Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) Options for Financing Solar Deployment at Universities - An NREL PDF white-paper
- PV Watts - an NREL tool to estimate annual energy production of a PV system & provides total sun-hours at a particular geolocation (both are useful pieces of information to utilize in other modeling systems)
- Solar Project Builder - MREA's free PV system financial modeling tool
- System Advisor Model (SAM) - NREL's PV (& other renewables) performance and financial modeling tool
- SAM Introduction & Demonstration - NREL's YouTube channel with a plethora of SAM tutorials including a 90 minute Introduction to SAM video
- A Refresher on Net Present Value (website) - Harvard Business Review article defining & comparing NPV, ROI, & simple payback - numbers that modelling tools will provide through analysis
- dsireUSA.org (website)- database of state incentives for renewables and efficiency
- Solar on Schools (website)- MREA's program providing module grants for school projects, valued up to $20,000
- Focus on Energy Grant (website) - provides incentives for cost-effective renewable energy systems installed at eligible WI schools.
- WPPI Nonprofit Grant - offered 1-2 times each year and available to schools in their member municipal territories
- WPPI Loan Program - available for schools in WPPI municipal member territories, offers loans for energy efficiency or renewable energy products at very low interest rates
- Board of Commissioners of Public Lands (BCPL) Loan Program - BCPL offers fixed rate loans with competitive interest rates, the application process is extremely simple, and borrowers pay no application fees, prepayment penalties, or any other fees. Interest earned on the loan program is distributed annually to fund public school library materials throughout WI.
- Office of Energy Innovation (OEI) Grant - a grant program was available to K-12 schools in 2018 and has not been rerun at this point. Watch OEI sites and information for potential new rounds of funding opportunities in the future
- U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmark: Q1 2018 - a report benchmarking different PV system component costs, and changes over time
- MREA's System Pricing Calculator - tool to play around with known or anticipated PV component cost input ratios and prices
- Expanding the Photovoltaic Supply Chain in the United States: Opportunities and Challenges - a report on the history and potential future of U.S. manufactured solar PV cells & modules
- West Salem School District - SunPeak, 2017
- Merton Community School District - SunVest, 2019
- Madison College: Fort Atkinson Campus - SunVest, 2020