Solar panels to be added to three Danvers schools

DANVERS — Solar panels will be added to three Danvers schools over the next six months to help the town move away from fossil fuel-powered electricity.

These panels will be installed on the roofs of Danvers High, Highlands Elementary and Smith Elementary Schools . The generated energy will go straight into the town’s power grid and be enough to power about 400 homes annually, but will not directly change the power source of these schools, said Clint Allen, Danvers’ assistant utility director.

“We want to continue providing our customers with reliable electricity at affordable rates, but we want to be mindful of where the generation has been sourced from,” Allen said. “Anytime we have the opportunity to do green projects in town, we are really excited.”

There will be no cost to the town to install the new technology, since Danvers is entering into a 20-year purchase power agreement with the third-party company Select Energy, which will own the solar panels for at least part of this period.

The town will be able to purchase the system and fully own and operate it starting in year 7 of its contract with Select.

The town’s electric division will buy the electricity generated by the panels at a set rate per kilowatt hour that is in line with Danvers’ other carbon-free, renewable energy contracts, Allen said.

“It’ll have no impact for the ratepayer, and it goes right in line with what we’re already paying,” Allen said.

The panels will go online this spring, Allen said. He told Danvers School Committee members during their meeting Monday night that the installation work will have minimal impact on the day-to-day operations of the schools, and that kiosks will be added to the sites to show students real-time energy generation data from the panels.

Allen also hopes to bring in Danvers Electric employees to talk to students about renewable energy and what the department does.

The School Committee unanimously approved the plan to install the solar panels and commended the town for the initiative.

The move ties directly into the town’s new Climate Action, Sustainability, Preservation and Resiliency (CASPR) Plan that was passed by the Select Board last week and is the most ambitious initiative to reduce the effects of climate change and promote sustainability in Danvers so far.

“One of the recommendations in the plan is that we have a lot of underutilized roof space in town, especially on the town buildings and school buildings, that we could put more solar panels on,” Allen said. “This is actually a good first step toward getting more solar panels within Danvers.”

The CASPR Plan calls for the town to move away from fossil fuel use and toward sustainable practices in six target areas of work: energy, buildings, natural resources, public health and safety, transportation and land use, and solid waste.

The town’s next priority in adding solar energy will be to fill in a landfill off of Route 1 near the Peabody border and add a significant number of solar panels to the property, Allen said.

Contact Caroline Enos at{/em} [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @CarolineEnos{em}.

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