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.
Once you've made the decision to move forward with a project, your team needs to prepare your solar PV project for competitive solicitation. Topics in this section include shaping your project for the market, prioritizing and effectively communicating your "must haves" and preferences, best practices for writing solar RFPs, and suggestions for key components of your RFP including a technical components and evaluation criteria.
Topic Shorts
This 23 minute topical short will provide a high level overview of the various request proposal options available to be used including Request for Information (RFI), Request for Qualifications (RFQ), as well as Request for Proposals (RFP).
Featuring: Eric Rehm, Solar Finance Manager
This 14 minute topical short will go over considerations in the RFP development process, discussing high level best practices and provide suggestions to keep in mind while developing your school's RFP.
Featuring: Eric Rehm, Solar Finance Manager
This 7 minute topic short will give an outline and briefly discuss several common key ingredients to include in a technical checklist for your school's PV RFP, including site specific considerations, respondent qualifications, financial requirements, technical requirements, permitting and interconnection, and O&M.
Featuring: Nick Matthes, MREA Project Manager
This 15 minute topical short will highlight proposal evaluation criteria often incorporated into Request for Proposal (RFP) solicitation so that respondents will understand how their bids will generally be weighed and graded. It will outline important criteria to include, weighting considerations, evaluation rubrics, and ensuring comparability.
Featuring: Eric Rehm, MREA Solar Finance Manager
This 17 minute topical short will provide an overview of administration and promotion of your RFP including pre-proposal conference site visit recommendations, and success drivers.
Featuring: Eric Rehm, MREA Solar Finance Manager
This 13 minute topic short will walk you through Highland Community College's RFP development process. Jill Jansen will discuss what worked for the college and will go over key components they recommend considering when developing your own school's RFP for solar PV.
Featuring: Jill Janssen, Highland Community College VP of Administrative Services
Topic Resources
- MREA Solar School RFP General Template (2020)- we encourage your school's solar planning team to start with this general RFP template, and edit as needed, especially focusing on the scoring rubric (discussed in depth in the next section)
- Madison Area Technical College (2020) - Madison College went out to bid for a 150kW system at Fort Atkinson campus and a 100kW system at their Reedsburg campus, using MREA's template. Also see their: RFP Addendum#1, RFP Addendum #2, and RFP Q&As
- Merton Community School District (2019)
- Madison Metropolitan School District (2019)- Madison West High School
- Madison Metropolitan School District Re-Bid (2020) - Madison West High School. The district went out to bid a second time after fine tuning their RFP
- Oregon School District (2015)) - Brooklyn Elementary School
- More Content Coming Soon
- Key Elements to a Successful RFP (PPT PDF) - presentation PDF put together by NREL. You can listen to audio of the webinar
- Solar RFP Best Practices (website) - resources compiled and put together by the EPA
- Steps to a Successful Solar RFP (PDF) - an online PDF put together by The Solar Foundation
- Wisconsin Procurement Desk Guide (PDF) - 2019 version compiled by DOA.WI.gov explaining WI procurement laws, procedures, methods, and considerations