Schools in our district are taking a step in the ‘green’ direction and looking to conserve energy and money. 

    Del Oro is the first of the schools in our district to obtain numerous solar panels throughout their facilities giving it the largest solar power plant at a school in Placer County.  

    “The district tried it out at Del Oro first because it would be the easiest school to do it at because of their big flat roofs,” said District Superintendent Dave Horsey. 

    Del Oro’s 483 kilowatts solar plant generates over 660,000 kilowatt an hour of electricity per year, providing about half of the school’s total energy requirements.  The structure mounted on the roof of the cafeteria and some classrooms at the school is said to have the annual electricity savings for Placer Union High School District of about $30,000 or more.

    With all the energy and money the panels seem to be saving, some students think it would be a good idea for our school to get our hands on the panels our self.  

      “I think it would be cool and we should get solar panels because they are environmentally friendly and I think in the long run it will save our school money that we can use towards our school dances, rallies and other fun activities,” stated sophomore Kailee Warren. “Also, our school would be a good spot for solar panels because we get a lot of sun.”

       Because of Placer’s odd structure, it wouldn’t be the most ideal spot for solar panels.

      “I think that the district is trying to conserve money and energy and solar panels would do both,” said Placer High School teacher, Scott Barry. “But for our school it would be tough because we have a geographical problem for that; we have too many buildings spread out.”

      “At Del Oro, almost all the classrooms are together in one building,” said government teacher, Mark Faulkner. “It would be really difficult at Placer because our buildings are so spread out and with the two streets between the campus it makes it hard.  Though a couple of buildings could potentially work-like the 500 building and the lower gym.”

       Even though Placer’s buildings might not be a great place for the panels, there could be other ways to still use them.

      “Placer buildings wouldn’t be accommodating for them and there’s not enough ground space to set up ground mounted solar systems so it’s not looking like Placer will be getting them anytime soon,” said Horsey. “Though a while back we were looking into putting up a ‘solar farm’ in Foresthill to use energy credits to offset energy at other schools,” added Horsey.  “However, current laws make it so you can only use the energy at the school the system it is hooked up at.”

      Even though the panels would eventually offset the energy bills and end up saving the district a lot of money, area and structure of the school isn’t the only issue.

      The instillation cost alone for a structure the size of Del Oro’s can be up to $3,590,000.

     “The thing is that there are budget issues because there is an initial large fee but in the long run you’ll end up saving a lot of money,”  stated Barry

      Since the initial price can be so costly, the district has a possible plan for the future.

      “The district hopes that within the next 10 years or so, the technology at Del Oro will be greater with things like roll out solar panels and they could buy out their old panels for cheaper,” added Faulkner.

     “If that’s what’s happening then I’m happy.  It will be good, you know that whole going green, saving money thing,” said Barry

     Even though it probably won’t be happening anytime soon, Placer may be seeing ‘green’ in its future.