As students attend classes in several Arizona school districts this fall, the schools will be featuring on-campus solar arrays specially designed to meet their own electricity needs while providing the school’s faculty with new teaching tools. This clean solar energy program has been conceived by Arizona’s Kennedy Partners, LLC and co-developed by Kennedy, NRG Solar, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG), and in conjunction with Pinnacle West, APS and public officials across the state.
As a first stage of the program, NRG Solar and Kennedy Partners are building 12 large solar pavilions at schools which are part of the Continental Elementary School District in Green Valley, south of Tucson and the Gila Bend Unified School District, southwest of Phoenix. Additionally, NRG and Kennedy Partners are currently working on similar large scale projects at Payson Unified School District, northeast of Phoenix, and Arlington Elementary School District, west of Phoenix. This unique public/private partnership allows the schools to benefit not only from available utility incentives but also from the federal and state tax benefits.
The solar cells on these pavilions will collectively generate more than 2.5 megawatts (MW) of power for the schools, roughly the same amount of power consumed by more than 2,000 homes. In reducing greenhouse gases, this is the equivalent of taking more than 550 passenger vehicles off Arizona’s roads.
In addition to providing electricity for the schools, the solar pavilions and their solar panels will give students the opportunity to learn about emission-free solar power generation and participate in the development of America’s clean energy future. NRG and Kennedy Partners will construct the solar pavilions as carports adjacent to the school buildings. Future installations could also supply shade for playgrounds, sidewalks or whatever best fits the needs of the individual school.
“With this project, we’re not only creating clean, renewable solar energy, we’re investing in the imagination of youths across Arizona,” said David Crane, President and CEO of NRG Energy. “The solar pavilions, which can be sized to provide customized clean energy solutions for each school, give students a dynamic, new learning experience while helping Arizona to meet its growing energy needs cleanly and sustainably.”
“To help Arizona school districts control energy costs, I directed $20 million of the State Energy Program monies be dedicated to upgrade energy efficiencies and add renewable energy programs,” said Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona. “An important aspect of these school projects is that they will be designed and constructed by Arizona companies and built by Arizona workers. These projects are good for Arizona school districts and they are good for the State of Arizona.”
This is NRG Solar’s first venture into distributed generation and builds on the Company’s growing portfolio of utility-scale solar developments across the U.S. Southwest.
Under the terms of the agreement, NRG will support the project development and provide investment capital for the installation and operation of the solar pavilions. NRG Solar will continue to work with Kennedy Partners under a joint development agreement on similar solar-powered projects within Kennedy’s substantial portfolio of school and government projects as well as commercial and institutional entities throughout the Southwest.
“Our School District and Government clients are very excited about developing these capital improvement projects on their sites with no capital cost,” said John Kennedy, Managing Principal of Kennedy Partners, a project management firm in Phoenix, Arizona specializing in the development of renewable energy projects for schools, governments and not-for-profit entities. Kennedy’s unique approach establishes an ownership path with no capital expense for their clients.
These partnerships are part of a growing presence for NRG in Arizona. NRG has signed a power purchase agreement with Tucson Electric Power for a 25 megawatts (MW) photovoltaic field to provide natural peaking power across Arizona, and recently acquired one of the newest district cooling systems in the U.S., providing chilled water to commercial buildings, office complexes, municipalities, universities and sport complexes in the Phoenix central business district. The Company has also recently announced the acquisition from US Solar of a portfolio of solar development projects on nine sites in California and Arizona ranging in size from 20 MW to 99 MW with the potential to be operational between 2011 and 2013.
“NRG Solar’s increasing focus on Arizona is a natural evolution for the Company,” said Tom Doyle, President of NRG Solar. “Few states have the incredible solar potential that Arizona does and we will continue to look for partnerships that help make solar generation more and more integral to meeting the growing need for clean energy.”
Solar projects support NRG’s commitment to increase its portfolio of low and no carbon generation assets with diverse technologies including new nuclear generation, onshore and offshore wind, biomass projects and a commercial-scale carbon capture project for fossil-fueled generation.
NRG Solar is responsible for developing, constructing, financing and operating a multi-technology portfolio of solar power assets in North America. The Company has more than 1,150 MW of projects under development with strong solar resources, potential for long-term power off take agreements with load-serving entities and established easily accessible connections to power grids.
“Adding these schools as well as future distributed generation projects to NRG Solar’s growing portfolio of utility-scale solar projects will further establish NRG’s position as a leading developer of solar generation capacity, large and small,” said Doyle.