Sunday, October 4, 2009

Going Solar Yields Long-Term Economical, Educational Benefits

More public and private schools across the country are making the responsible decision to go green. Solar power for the U.S. Department of Energy estimated that in 2006, schools nationwide spent about 8.3 billion on energy, creating opportunities for schools to input solar or other renewable energy into their budget.
Incorporating solar takes a long time to invest in schools. They depend on financial programs in order to make solar energy systems work. Schools usually end up paying the power purchase agreements (PPA) instead of paying their local electricity utility because it turns out that paying the PPA is much cheaper. The PPA is becoming well known to schools and is helping their clients reduce their monthly energy bills. Another solar program would be Borrego Solar System, which has helped many public and private schools with education factors just by going solar. By reducing energy cost just by using solar power energy, it has become a large green initiative that will benefit the community.
It is now easier than before for schools to be involved with renewable energy. Yet, even though solar energy did help out schools, that does not mean that solar is the only renewable energy, there are more types of energy that would help out the community. But Solar Energy made an impact for many schools giving them a better community.

1 comment:

diana camcho said...

I see this as once again being a great way to pave the road for our future generations. If kids now see that even the elementary school which they attend resource to a green form of energy then the possibilities are endless when it comes to alternate forms of energy. An unfortunate downfall to all of this is that schools resource to PPA (Power Purchase Agreements) instead of their cities electricity utilities to generate the power. Although it is economically efficient for the schools, I ask if the city ever receives any of the income that is produced by the schools or PPA. Now standing from this side of the fence you can see that schools receive taxes from those who live in their communities and then schools take that money and give it to a company outside of their community, how could this possibly make any sense? Now if the company which is tied to the PPA is within the community and the profits are then processed in the same area, well of course this is a great way to spread alternative energy to generations to come. In the end establishing a green energy source to where our young generations can experience it first hand is amazing, but there must be a way to work out the economic deficiencies if this is to truly be a success.