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MILL HALL -- The Keystone Central School District Board of Directors will consider entering into an agreement with McClure Company out of State College for potential solar arrays in the district.
The board heard from representatives of McClure regarding the potential for the arrays during a recent work session.
Alyssa Wingenfield, vice president of sales and marketing, told the board if it chose to sign a letter of intent, McClure would bring solid figures in roughly six months for it to consider. All this would be at no cost to the district.
"This is all preliminary right now," Wingenfield said of the figures presented to the board on Thursday. "This is all desktop engineering using rules of thumb and past projects. Our next step is to sign a letter of intent."
Wingenfield said the next step would be for McClure to solidify its numbers and estimates for the proposed solar arrays at various district facilities.
"There's no cost to go to this next step to get final costs and final savings," she said.
The current proposal includes potential solar arrays near Central Mountain High School, Woodward Elementary School and Bucktail Middle/High School.
According to Wingenfield, these arrays can supply energy to district facilities within a 2-mile radius.
"When we laid the solar out we looked at three major sites -- one at this campus that would offset all the electricity used as Central Mountain Middle, Mill Hall Elementary and the high school. We looked at a field at Woodward Elementary and we looked at a field at Bucktail/Renovo," she said. "By using all those fields, you'd be able to offset over 110 percent of what those buildings use each year."
It was noted these areas have the ground for arrays to be placed.
Wingenfield noted the tentative proposal did not include Liberty-Curtin Elementary School due to ongoing construction of a new facility and its placement on a different utility. However, if the board chose to move forward, McClure would look further into the area.
Wingenfield broke down what the process would look like if the district were to lease the arrays from McClure.
"We'll install the array, maintain the array and make sure it's working. We even guarantee your kilowatt hours," she said. "What we do is we look at how much the field generated, compare it to what we promised, if there's a shortfall -- much like our energy projects -- we owe you the difference. That's a guaranteed kilowatt production."
Wingenfield added, while under the lease, the company would replace any damaged panels or handle any possible hazmat situations. This was further emphasized by Dip Smith, production developer and PV Associate for the North American Board of Certified Practitioners who attended the meeting with Wingefield.
"We decommission the system based on the EPA's regulations and rules. So we would be recycling it based on those guidelines. We would be responsible for any hazmat situations," Smith said.
According to Wingenfield, if the district signed on to a 30-year lease -- the maximum time allowed -- the only obligation it would have is mowing around the solar arrays.
Based on tentative figures, Wingenfield said the arrays could save the district roughly $100,000 in its first year, with that number increasing over time.
"After 30 years the district will have the decision to have us take the array off the ground – no cost to you guys, that's already figured into these numbers," she said. "The other option is to abandon it in place where we walk away and it becomes a district asset."
Wingenfield added the panels themselves have a 40-year life span.
McClure's figures factor in various statistics, including the potential increase in electrical costs by about 3 percent each year. A number Wingenfield said has been the average over the last few years.
"The only way those savings would go down is if the electricity rates go down over the next 30 years," she said.
If McClure were to default, Smith said the district would be able to give written notice and terminate its contract -- even within the 30-year lease.
If that were to happen, Smith said he believes the arrays would become the district's, but said he would check with his legal team to make certain.
In terms of a timeframe, if the district chooses to move forward with the arrays, Smith provided a rough breakdown of how long it would take for the panels to come online.
"In terms of a timeline, we would say the front end is a lot of engineering and design which can take anywhere from 3 to 8 months," he said. "The construction project total can be 12 to 18 months."
Smith said the longest timeline McClure has faced lately involves interconnecting the systems with local utilities.
"There is a large influx of projects going into the utility and there's trouble keeping up," he said. "So we're seeing delays in reviews and transformer switch gears required for upgrades."
Smith and Wingenfield added the district's Career and Technical Center students and instructors could have the opportunity to learn more about the world of solar during the projects as well.
"As part of the project we put TVs in all of the schools so they can see live production data. We can show your teachers websites to use that live data in their classrooms," she said. "As we go through this process we'd love to have any of your students who are interested in this industry shadow our engineers, shadow the construction -- really bring them into what this is all about."
Smith said McClure has started a similar project in the Southern Columbia Area School District, which has seen students and instructors shadow the process.
The board will consider signing a letter of intent with McClure during its voting session on Thursday, April 11.