星期六, 5 7 月, 2025
Home PV News North America More than 7,000 schools across the US are solar powered

More than 7,000 schools across the US are solar powered

Total installed solar capacity on schools has grown 139% since 2014, and now can be found on 5.5% of all public and private K-12 schools, according to the 2020 Brighter Future report.

Source:pv magazine

Total installed solar capacity on U.S. schools has increased 139% since 2014, according to the 2020 Brighter Future report, released by Generation180, a non-profit that advocates for campuses to gain more access to solar power.

While the capacity of solar installed at schools is up, so to is the total number of schools with solar installations, rising 81% since 2014. As of 2020, 7,332 schools nationwide have solar systems accounting for 1,337 MW of capacity.

Solar schools now make up 5.5% of all public and private K-12 schools, almost doubling from 3% in 2014. The decision to go solar at public schools is typically made at the district level, and 16% of K-12 school districts, 2,231 in total, have embraced PV.

According to the report, the average school solar installation size is 182 kW.

As with most things solar, California led the way on schools’ solar adoption, as 2,430 schools have deployed 616 MW of solar. More than 2 million California schoolchildren attend a solar school.

Next comes New Jersey with 621 schools, 181 MW, and 407,751 students. After that each respective category has some variation, with Illinois (455 schools), Arizona (400) and Massachusetts (292) rounding out the top-5 for solar schools; Arizona (125 MW), Massachusetts (71 MW), and Indiana (41 MW) taking the top-5 for installed MW; and Florida (302,699), Illinois (271,990), and Arizona (270,233) having the third-most, fourth-most, and fifth-most, respectively, students attending solar schools.

The report also highlighted the shortcomings of North Carolina, as the state has third-most installed solar solar capacity (7,000 MW), but comes in at 31st nationally for solar schools. Only 57 schools in North Carolina have solar energy systems installed on campus, according to the report.

Virginia jumped from 20th place to 8th place nationwide between 2017 and 2020, driven primarily by the legalization of power purchase agreements in Dominion’s service area. This change enabled the number of schools with solar on them to grow from 29 to 89 in two years, as the installed capacity expanded 10-fold, from 1.9 MW to more than 20 MW.

Similar growth will not be able to be replicated in North Carolina, as PPAs are not yet allowed anywhere in North Carolina. Even so, the state began a solar leasing program in 2017, which allows for a service agreement that offers some of the same benefits, including solar on campus at no upfront cost.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

- Advertisment -

Most Popular

Al Kharsaah: A Pioneering Solar Power Plant in Qatar

Located 80 km west of Qatar's capital, Doha, the Al Kharsaah Solar PV Independent Power Producer (IPP) project is the country's first large-scale solar...

OMV Petrom Buys 50 Pct Stake in Gabare Solar Project

OMV Petrom S.A. has acquired a 50 percent stake in the Gabare solar project from Enery Element, a large-scale project in Byala Slatina, near...

RWE 7.5MW/11MWh battery energy storage start commercial operation in Netherlands

Power generation firm RWE has put a BESS in the Netherlands into commercial operation, its first that is capable of providing inertia to the...

Gurīn Energy selects Saft’s battery energy storage system for first Japanese project

Saft, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies, has been selected by leading Asian renewable energy developer Gurīn Energy to supply a battery energy storage system (BESS)...