Since joining the School Board of Santa Barbara Unified School District in 2016, Laura Capps made solar a priority. She led the effort for the district to adopt school microgrids with 4.5 MW of solar capacity and 3 MW/6 MWh of battery energy storage, financinced through a power purchase agreement (PPA). This improves the district’s ability to provide backup energy to the community in times of crisis, while also leveraging its ability to earn revenue in energy markets.

Webinar featuring Laura Capps

Case study on the solar project

Liz Doerr is a School Board member of Richmond Public Schools. The city of Richmond currently has the most schools with solar in Virginia, and the school district is expected to save $100,000 every year over the 20 years of its power purchase agreement (PPA) with Secure Futures Solar. The district also integrates the solar panels into classroom work through teacher training and curricula from the National Energy Education Development (NEED) project.

News story featuring Richmond Public Schools

Nick serves 6 schools and over 2,700 students as the Superintendent of Breckinridge County School District. He helped bring solar to the district, powering both Irvington and Hardinsburg Elementary Schools with solar through state funding, delivering long-term cost savings to district, in addition to creating a better learning environment for his students.

Letter on solar facility upgrades

Doug is the Facilities & Maintenance Supervisor for Orange County Public Schools. He played a pivotal role in getting the school board to approve the solar project, and worked hard to ensure roof restoration rolled into their solar agreement with Secure Futures Solar. Over the next 25 years, Orange County Schools expect to generate half of their electricity needs through rooftop solar and save about $11 million in energy costs.

News story featuring solar project

Bob is the Energy Manager at Hamilton Southeastern Schools. He convinced the school board to acquire and flip the switch on three ground-mount solar arrays. They will save the district $7,000,000 in utility costs over the life of the investment. Bob leads STEM education lessons with students through two mobile learning labs, and has mentored other districts in the state seeking to go solar who sought out his expertise.

Podcast featuring Bob and the HSE solar project

As Knox County Schools’ Energy Manager, Zane has helped equip eleven Knox County Schools with solar. All together, they’re saving at more than $500,000 annually. Over time they’ll be saving the district money once the recuperate the upfront costs, powering the schools with clean energy and helping clean the Tennessee Valley.
Article on solar at Knox County Schools

Tony Sparks works for the Facilities Design + Construction Department of Albuquerque Public Schools, where he is Project Manager for HVAC Systems, Energy Efficiency & Sustainability, and Coordinator of the Water and Energy Conservation Committee. All new and renovated facilities have solar arrays installed, and all new construction is designed to meet LEED energy-efficient standards. Most recently, APS added a 850kW solar + battery storage project to improve school resiliency, saving APS $3.5 million over 25 years on electricity bills.

News story featuring the APS solar project.

Kyley Delphia, Director of Facilities at Spring Hill School District, helped bring the first ground-mounted solar array to the school district and more than tripling the size of the second largest district array in Kansas. The solar array will generate ~1.3 million kWh annually and estimated to save the district over $4 million over the next 30 years. The live data from the array provides students a unique learning experience.

News story featuring Spring Hill’s Solar Project
District Announcement of Solar Project

Jason Lee Middle School science teacher Kathy Hall kickstarted the “Watts Up!” solar project pioneered by 3 students. They spoke at the Governor’s STEM meeting in 2019 at and shared their idea with Gov. Jay Inslee. Thanks to their advocacy and Kathy’s mentorship, plus her fundraising an additional 4k by dying her hair purple, a 100kW solar array is planned for their school and the school board is looking into installing solar districtwide.

Case study featuring the solar project

Webinar featuring Kathy’s students

Since 2014, Jeanie has been teaching 6th and 8th grade science at the Ann Arbor STEAM School. In 2019, Wilson’s students studying environmental science and PV technology fundraised to install solar panels on the school’s roof, successfully interconnecting panels in 2020. She wrote a K-8 NGSS aligned Project Based curriculum for students to learn about solar. Thanks to her leadership, the district expanded their solar array and started putting solar on other buildings.
Video outlining their solar project
Jeanie’s solar curriculum

Raymond is the Vehicle Maintenance Manager of Twin Rivers Unified School District. Twin Rivers currently operates the largest electric school bus fleet in the country, with over 40 electric school buses, and counting. This was the first school district in the nation to deploy zero-emission electric school buses and is now actively working on growing their fleet from 50% electric to 100%.

Website on their electric school bus fleet.

As the Vehicle Maintenance Manager of Broward County Public Schools, Thomas manages a fleet of 1,000+ buses, with 60 electric school buses on the way. The county will pay the diesel bus price and VW grant funds will match the remaining cost. He is committed to fleet electrification and also advises multiple Florida Association of Pupil Transportation committees.

News story featuring their electric school bus investment

Matthew serves 14 schools and 11,000 students as the Director of Maintenance, Operations, and Transportation for Pittsburg Unified School District. All school sites have solar, saving the district money, and the newly acquired beta solar panels over one-acre bioswale and 4 (10kW) wind generation units provide hands-on learning. The district has 4 electric buses, 3 on the way, and EV charging stations are being installed at all school campuses to help drive EV adoption in their community.
Live dashboards for all school solar sites.