The Patrick County School Board heard a presentation about potentially installing solar panels on the roofs of school buildings at its September 14 meeting.
Joe DeRado, of Secure Solar Futures, a solar developer in Central Virginia, said the company was founded in 2004 and has over 117 individual projects with roughly 37 installed megawatts.
“We were the first PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) company in Virginia, as well as West Virginia, and we’re a Certified B Corporation,” he said.
Being a Certified B Corporation means the company meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.
DeRado said the company focuses on providing on-site solar solutions with no capital, including K-12 schools, universities, hospitals, government amenities, businesses, and cold-storage warehouses.
“We’re deep in education, it’s about 65 percent of our business. So, although we work with government entities, we work with commercial, our hallmark is really in education. Many on our executive team were educators, and so we have professors, former presidents of universities,” he said.
Some educational partners include Shenandoah University, Washington and Lee University, Richmond Public Schools, University of Richmond, Albemarle County Public Schools, and other universities and public school systems.
DeRado said Secure Solar differentiates itself from other solar companies with its educational component which includes two pieces.
“The first piece is basically leading classroom curricula. The second piece is our Throwing Solar Shade, which is STEM-based learning if you will,” he said of a program that allows students to become scientists to learn from the solar ray.
The second educational component is workforce development for job training.
“That’s a teacher-led program for 10 days where they’ll get their OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) 10 Certification. They’ll go through electric safety and some basic conduit-bending. It’s like an intro to what they would see in the internship that we provide during the summer,” he said.
DeRado said the company piloted this program in 2021-2022, hiring a handful of students in Wise and Lee county schools. There was an interview and hiring process with eight to 10 students participating.
“We paid them $17 an hour and they got to install solar on their roofs. We envision rolling that out in Patrick County as well,” he said, adding that will be part of the company’s project offer.
DeRado believes this component is useful as it allows students to explore and see if they wish to go into solar.
“They get to get some hands-on training, they get a resume builder, they get some references, and it helps them get their next job,” he said.
DeRado said the school board’s project includes Patrick County High School (PCHS), Meadows of Dan Elementary School, Patrick Springs Primary School, and Stuart Elementary School.
“Patrick Springs Primary and Stuart Elementary, you have two options there because they were canvased for roof restoration. So, we showed you, ‘hey, if you didn’t want to look at roof restoration at all, we take everything off the flat roofs,’” he said.
DeRado said without the roof restoration, it will be about 1.4 megawatts, and with the restoration, it will be about 1.8 megawatts.
“So, you’re picking up like 350 KWs in size which ultimately helps the savings, and roughly that’s 47 to 61 percent in offset” of power for the schools, he said.
At PCHS, DeRado said the project design has 900.2 kilowatts (kW) and a 47.4 percent energy offset. Meadows of Dan will have a 162.8 kW and a 64.3 percent energy offset.
With no roof restoration, DeRado said in year one, the projected energy savings would be about $19,000. In year 25, the lifespan of the agreement, the projected savings will be a little more than $1.5 million.
“The 35-year gets pretty interesting because although the agreement ends at 25, these panels still have 10 years left on their lifecycle. So, at the end of 25 years, you basically get the panels for pennies on the dollar, and then you’re looking at almost $6 million in savings,” he said.
The average savings for the project over the term of the agreement is $60,928.
With the roof restoration, the estimated solar service fee and projected net energy savings increase. The projected annual savings over the term of the agreement is $74,399 plus the cost of roof savings.
For Patrick Springs, “the restoration, if you had capital, if you wanted to handle this with the capital perspective, that would be $371,000. So, roughly half of what it would cost for a traditional roof replacement.”
The estimated total cost of roof replacements for Patrick Springs, PCHS, and Stuart is $1,447,500. The estimated cost of roof restorations for the three buildings is $727,902.
If the school division decided after 25 years it does not want to renew the agreement, Secure Solar will take the panels off at no charge.
DeRado said the engineering process would be 90 to 120 days once the agreement is signed.
“Procurement happens kind of in the same timeframe. You’re probably looking at some of the educational pieces that are going to be coming into like the early part of 2024. The actual installation, just solar, you’re probably looking at summer 2024, third-quarter 2024, or summer of 2025,” he said.
DeRado said the company tries to line that up so that the programming is right.
“So, like you want kids on roofs to put the workforce piece in, well when do they have (time) off? So, we work around the school schedule. We work around their summer schedule, so it’s at your pace,” he said.
Rob Martin, of the Dan River District, said several solar panel companies have talked to the board about solar energy.
“The one thing that I really like with your company, and it sounded great, and it still does, is the aspect of actually getting in with the students and stuff like that,” he said.
In other matters, the board:
*Approved the personnel report list #1 as amended.
*Did not accept personnel report list #2.
*Approved religious exemptions RE23-24-03.
*Heard the superintendent’s report.
*Approved the annual gifted program as presented.
*Approved the annual comprehensive plan as presented.
*Approved the policy updates.
