Everyday, more and more schools are turning their vast open fields of student and teacher parking lots into fields of energy. With more days than not in Texas being sunny (and hot) more and more schools are going solar and we have to ask…why aren’t more schools going solar?

Schools Going Solar

The average school in the United States adds an additional cost to build their school facility of about 2% when adding solar panels to their school, yet they also save about 20% of their overall all energy bills per year. So what does that mean…well maybe instead of cutting programs, they could cut a check..just one time.

Utility’s are generally a schools second biggest expense..next to staff salaries. According to the DOE (Department of Energy) schools are spending about $6 Billion dollars a year on energy cost in k-12 schools. This is more than textbooks and computer cost combined. Imagine saving roughly 25% of this cost yearly, roughly $1.5 Billion back into our school systems.

A Solar Foundation report found that 60 percent of K-12 schools in this country could convert to solar energy at minimum cost. Some schools are moving in that direction, but it is a slow process. Only 3% of our schools here in the United States have made that conversion. Schools’ solar energy capacity grew by over 1,500 percent in just a decade, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.  Unfortunately, schools don’t get the same purchasing incentives that retail homeowners get and are unable to take advantage of state and federal incentives.

Solar Incentives For Schools

For the most part, most schools , non-profits and/or charitable organizations get the best of incentives for changes like this. This is mainly due to the fact of their tax status in the first place. This should be looked at as a possible small investment into a much bigger problem of overall economics for our already debilitated financial crisis in our schools.