The Miller Place Union Free School District announced today that it has officially completed the installation of its Districtwide solar energy system, which will be fully online for the 2018-2019 school year. The new clean energy program will provide the District with significant savings on energy costs and establish the Miller Place School District as one of the most eco-friendly school districts on Long Island. Each school building throughout the District has been outfitted with state-of-the-art solar panels, providing the District with approximately 1.3 megawatts of clean, solar energy.
“Establishing this Districtwide solar energy program is an initiative that will bring cost-saving measures for decades,” said Dr. Marianne Cartisano, Superintendent of the Miller Place School District. “This investment is a testament to the District’s forward-thinking financial philosophy and will help reduce the community’s carbon footprint. This is something to be celebrated and we are incredibly excited that this initiative has now come to fruition.”
The initiative was part of the District’s ongoing energy conservation plan, which was announced as part of an energy performance contract that was approved by the Miller Place Board of Education in 2014. The clean energy system is anticipated to save the District more than $240,000 per year in energy costs, and over $3.6 million over the course of 18 years. This projected cost saving will enable the District to reallocate funds to other expenses and capital improvements without the need to increase the District’s overall operating budget.
“Implementing solar panels was part of the Board of Education’s long-term strategy to reduce costs, make the District’s facilities more eco-friendly and do our part to enhance the Miller Place community,” said Johanna Testa, Miller Place School District Board of Education President. “The Board of Education is committed to facilitating and organizing opportunities that will improve our District’s facilities and our students’ educational experiences. The solar energy system is one that we are thrilled to announce, and we look forward to experiencing the many benefits that this energy program will provide our District and our community.”
To quantify the energy and cost savings the District has installed monitors in the front lobby of each building that will show the amount of energy the solar panels are producing at any given time. In addition to depicting the number of kilowatt-hours the individual building’s solar energy system has generated, the monitors will also inform students, teachers and parents of the solar energy system’s environmental benefits—including the amount of electricity that was no longer needed to power the building and the decrease in the amount of carbon monoxide that was no longer emitted into the environment.
“With all the solar panels and lobby monitors now installed and being actively utilized, our students will have a real-time opportunity to observe and become more aware of the multiple positive aspects solar energy brings to our schools and community,” said Dr. Cartisano. “We can also use this cost-saving, environmentally friendly technology as a tool in future STEAM curriculums.”
For more information regarding Miller Place Schools and the performance of the solar panel system, visit the district’s website: http://www.millerplace.k12.ny.us/