Simi Valley Unified School District (USD) and SolarCity announced 29 new solar projects that could cut the District’s energy bills by millions of dollars and reduce more than 160 million tons of carbon pollution over the systems’ lifetime. The project, which requires no upfront capital expenditure from the District, would power 29 school sites with renewable, solar energy.
“Like academic institutions across California, Simi Valley Unified School District is doing everything we can to reduce our operating expenses,” said District Superintendent Kathryn Scroggin. “SolarCity has made it easy for us to adopt solar without any upfront capital expenses. We are also pleased to educate our students on the impact of solar. This project’s carbon savings would be tantamount to planting about 346,000 trees per year, which will help our community’s existing urban forest flourish.”
The Simi USD Board approved the 5.4 Megawatt project at its Aug. 6 meeting. The project is estimated to save the District more than $10 million over the lifetime of the agreement. Each of the 29 solar power systems are expected to supply roughly 75 percent of its site’s electricity. SolarCity guarantees the performance of its solar systems, and will handle any repairs for free throughout the agreement.
The solar systems also offer real-time monitoring so that students and faculty can see their schools’ solar electricity generation and their energy use online on a daily, weekly or yearly basis.