Dec 6 2010
St. Mary’s County Public Schools (SMCPS), a highly rated school among all Maryland school systems, will host a solar power system over its school buildings. As Project Sunburst Partner of Maryland Energy Administration (MEA), SMCPS has received the funding from MEA, which is exclusively created for the growth of solar power projects over public buildings in Maryland.
Standard Solar, a leading solar energy development company and Perpetual Energy Systems, a company that finances solar power systems, have formed a partnership to support the SMCPS project. For the proposed solar system, Standard Solar will install the required solar panels and will mutually formulate, possess and manage the system with Perpetual Energy.
The first 503 kW solar system to be installed over the George Washington Carver Elementary School in Great Mills, MD will have over 2,200 ARRA specified solar panels to generate around 677,000 kWh of electric power in its first year of operation. The power generated from the facility will meet nearly 80% of the power requirement of the school, which can be equated to the removal of 105.5 cars from the road every year. SMCPS has contracted a 15 year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Perpetual Standard Solar to avail the solar power installations without making any capital investment. The PPA will compensate SMCPS to around 30% of their current power spending. Perpetual Standard Solar has associated with Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) to buy the solar renewable energy credits (SRECS) to contribute to finance the project.
MEA has received major finance for its Project Sunburst through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) to encourage the use of clean solar energy. MEA as a part of the scheme has allocated a sizeable portion of the funding to install solar systems over public buildings in Maryland. To save on project costs and to avail increased incentives, Project Sunburst Partners will install the solar systems and enter into PPA’s for the power generated from the projects. SMCPS was one among the 21 selected recipients to get the Project Sunburst grant.