Solar system isn't just in Bayonne's textbooks

[jpak]

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1137649336316870.xml&coll=1

The Board of Public Utilities unveiled a solar-energy project on the roofs of Bayonne schools yesterday that, when complete, will amount to the largest photovoltaic installation on the East Coast, according to a solar industry trade group.

The $13.2 million array of 9,500 solar panels, spread over nine school buildings, will be more than three times as powerful as the East Coast's next-largest project at the New Jersey American Water facility in Somerset, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

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The system, which is three-quarters complete, does not power Bayonne schools directly, but rather sends electricity into the regional grid, said Lou Pacyna, clerk of the works for the Bayonne School District. When fully built and performing at its peak, it will produce 1.8 megawatts of energy -- which T&M Associates, the engineer on the project, said was enough to power 250 or more homes.

The energy could earn the school district credits worth $500,000 a year, officials there said.

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[Ready4Change]

1. Further bonuses as well.

Those panels will shade those roofs, reducing AC costs during the summer. They'll provide an example for the kids who attend those schools, in that they can live and learn underneath a powerplant, without taking up any greenspace, without creating pollution, and, to a larger degree than other power systems, creating an eyesore, since the roofs these are mounted on are most likely flat and out of sight.

Great project.

[NickB79]

2. $13 million to power 250 homes

$52,000 per home?!?! Wow.