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TRENDING:
Solar projects planned in two Lackawanna County school districts await regulatory approval and permitting to begin construction.
Exact Solar, which is installing the panels in the North Pocono School District, has submitted its plans to PPL and awaits their approval, while Spotts Brothers, the developer of the array in the Old Forge School District, has started permitting and design for that project.
Construction hasn’t started on either project, officials in both districts said last week.
North Pocono officials plan to install a total of 2,449 solar panels on all five district buildings. The project will be funded by an $812,000 state Solar for Schools grant and a federal inflation tax credit, which will fund 40% of the project, as well as $7.15 million general obligation bonds the board issued in March, which will cover the remaining cost.
Exact Solar of Newtown will install the panels and has submitted its engineering plan to PPL for interconnection approval, Superintendent Daniel Powell said last week. Officials have ordered equipment for the project and once the utility company grants its approval, the district will move forward with applying for permits from the respective municipalities the schools are located in.
Powell estimates the panels will save the district between $150,000 and $175,000 annually in energy expenses.
In Old Forge, officials plan to construct panels on 82,000 square feet of the approximately 100,000-square-foot Billy Long Sports Complex. They are looking to relocate the current athletic complex to an area behind Old Forge Elementary School known as the Pit. The Billy Long Sports Complex is used as a practice field for boys and girls varsity soccer, junior high school soccer and by the junior high soccer program for league soccer games in the fall, and for junior high school baseball practice and games in the spring. The Pit is used for football and soccer practice.
District officials awarded a $1.2 million contract last month to Spotts Brothers of Schuylkill Haven to install the panels, Superintendent Christopher Gatto said. He said the company has started permitting and design for the project, which will be 680 kilowatts, and the Pit is still being used as a practice facility.
Gatto said officials are projecting that the project will pay for itself in about three years and the district would save approximately $100,000 per year in electricity costs.
Like North Pocono, the Old Forge School District also received a grant this year through the Solar for Schools program for $400,000 to support the installation of solar energy infrastructure.
THEN: The Old Forge and North Pocono school districts received grants to install solar panels in each district and solicited bids for a construction company to install them.
NOW: North Pocono awaits PPL interconnection approval on its project, while Old Forge awarded a contract to a construction company to install them on district grounds.
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