Schools

Savings from Lincoln-Sudbury Solar Canopy Project Questioned

The school committee is re-evaluating the 1.2-megawatt solar canopy.

The solar canopy project for the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School parking lot may have hit a snag.

During the L-S school committee meeting on Nov. 12, Chairman Radha Gargeya said the district has started to re-evaluate the financial model and is asking SunEdison to recalculate the analysis.

The update came after resident Rick Johnson asked in an email about possible miscalculations in the project’s payback to L-S.

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“There has been talk that the payback calculations were done incorrectly and the estimated savings (“upward of $100,000 in its first year”) is zero,” Johnson wrote to Gargeya, “and in fact LS will be paying more for their electricity after this project is completed.”

The project, which was supposed to have started earlier this year, is a 1.2-megawatt solar canopy covering about 80 percent of the school parking lot. Maryland-based solar company SunEdison has agreed to build and maintain it for free in exchange for a 20-year power purchase agreement with L-S.

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The original plans for the canopy call for the panels to create 1.26 megawatts of electricity, but Rami Alwan, a biology teacher at Lincoln-Sudbury and a member of the Sudbury Energy and Sustainability Green Ribbon Committee, said in September that has since changed.  

"The panels have gotten 18 percent more productive," he said. "They may be able to produce 1.3 (or more)."

The added energy, if the calculations are correct, could increase the savings for L-S from $90,000 to $110,000 in the first year.

Gargeya said a catalyst group with expertise in solar projects will also be paid through a grant to provide an added analysis.

“Both will be done in a few weeks,” he said. “Then we will update the community.” 

Below is the official statement Gargeya read:

"Pursuant to community input, LS is evaluating the financial model of the Solar project. We asked SunEdison to redo their analysis. We also received a grant from Massachusetts DOER (Department of Energy Resources), which we are using to ask Cadmus Group, a consulting group that has energy expertise, to do an independent and concurrent analysis as well. Both their analyses should be done within a few weeks. We will then further update the community."


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