The Board of Education voted unanimously on October 19 to send requests for proposals (RFPs) out to developers in order to begin the process of repairing Westfield schools' roofs and obtaining a solar generating system to go on the roofs and possibly school parking lots.
The board hopes to send out the RFPs on October 22 and ultimately pick a developer on December 14, according to Richard Mattessich, the board's solar energy lead. Ryan Scerbo, who practices environmental law with Decotiis, FitzPatrick and Cole law firm and was retained the BOE to provide advice on the formulation of the RFP, briefed the board on the solar panel process.
"It's very creative," said board president Julia Walker. "We have an opportunity to do something bold."
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Screbo, who has advised Union and Morris Counties, on solar projects was retained at the last BOE meeting as a part of a $15,000 contract. Part of his duties including submitting a draft RFP, with BOE members handling most of the details of the proposal.
The solar plan has been advocated by Mattessich and others on the BOE as part of the district's cost savings program in light of the cuts to Westfield's state aid. The school district declined to participate in a solar panel project funded by the Union County Improvement Authority since the roofs of district building did not meet the conditions set by the UCIA, which was looking for recently repaired roofs.
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The program would call for renovation of Westfield schools' roofs and the addition of tempered glass solar panels to generate energy, with a contract lasting 15 years. The developer would be using the Board of Education's roof space for its solar panels, and would in turn sell the energy generated by the panels back to the board at a reduced price called the Power Purchase Price (PPP), a previously-agreed-upon figure based on a variety of factors such as electricity market price and cost of the roof repairs.
"(The PPP) will give budget certainty and savings," said Scerbo.
Though the price was not discussed at Tuesday's meeting, it was noted that the RFP was approved by the state comptroller's office, which must examine RFPs worth $10 million or more. The project is not without its risks, either.
"The primary risk is there's a lot of roof work (that must be done)" said Scerbo, adding that the roof work will be reflected in an "abnormally high" PPP. He did say that the developers make most of their money with Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) it generates from the solar panels, that the PPP is an "insignificant" part of the developers' profits, and that the board will still see savings even with a high PPP.
"(The electricity market) is a very competitive market," he said.
Included with the panel array will be a monitoring system, similar to the system used by the library's solar panels. It will beam energy usage and generation data to an LCD TV in each building that has a panel, and a display housed in the Board of Education building that monitors all systems. The board was enthusiastic about the possibility of utilizing the displays in school curricula.
