Featured Items
Solar Master Plans for Public Schools (November 2011)
KyotoUSA and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are pleased to announce the release of the Solar Master Plans developed for Berkeley, Oakland, and West Contra Costa Unified School Districts. The compiled Plan for Berkeley Unified as well as the individual chapters can be viewed here.
Chapters 1 (Benchmarking) and 4 (Aerial Assessments of Selected Sites) for West Contra Costa - chapters which are specific to this district - can be downloaded from this link. Oakland Unified's Solar Master Plan is being updated and will be posted soon.
San Ramon Valley Unified installs 3.3 MW on 5 campuses (October 2011)
During the summer 2011, SunPower Corp. installed 3.3 MW of solar panels across 5 high school campuses and a middle school at San Ramon Unified School District. A number of the PV systems were installed in school parking lots providing welcome shade for students and faculty.
The catalyst for the project was a Monte Vista High School student who contacted KyotoUSA seeking help in getting solar installed at her school. Read her story here (134KB, pdf).
One School's Solar Project Fuels a Movement
In August 2008, KyotoUSA released a report, using Washington Elementary School as a case study, demonstrating that installing PV systems on schools leads to a quantifiable increase in jobs, boosts the local economy, reduces carbon dioxide and other harmful toxic air emissions and improves health. Watch a video about this exciting project. The study also shows that the electricity derived from the photovoltaic systems improves the long-term economic well-being of the school district. Download our study (5.4MB, pdf) to learn more.
