OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi — A current change to Mississippi’s electrical energy technology legal guidelines, set to take impact in January, will permit greater than half of the state’s public faculty districts to start out to save cash by producing their very own photo voltaic vitality.
The brand new rule, agreed to by the Public Service Fee with the state’s two investor-owned utilities in October, paves the way in which for varsity districts to earn credit for producing solar energy with out actually should pay for the photo voltaic panels.
Beginning in 2023, any of the 95 public faculty districts served by Entergy Mississippi or Mississippi Energy can enter right into a so-called energy buy settlement, wherein a third-party contractor pays the invoice so as to add photo voltaic panels to highschool district property. Entergy or Mississippi Energy then purchases the generated solar energy and credit the district with its vitality invoice. To finance the brand new system, the contractor can be eligible for presidency tax credit.
Whereas the rule change opens a door for widespread use of renewable vitality in Mississippi, a few of the state’s faculty districts are already producing solar energy, with some seeing new wiggle room of their budgets.
“This can be a actually huge win for the district,” stated Mike Papas, Forrest County College District’s director of Auxiliary Providers.
Final 12 months, the Forrest County College District accomplished the set up of 300 photo voltaic panels on the roof of its performing arts middle, which it makes use of for occasions comparable to faculty performs and college conferences. The constructing, in response to Papas, can seat 900 individuals and requires fixed air-con. However as a result of the photo voltaic panels generate $3,000 per 30 days value of electrical energy, he stated, they cowl greater than half of the middle’s electrical energy invoice.
“In order that we are able to produce clear vitality, then in order that we are able to get the cash and return it to the price range to do what the scholars want, we won’t lose,” stated Papas. “And plus it is free.”
In 2014, the Sierra Membership reached a settlement with Mississippi Energy over the utility’s infamous failed clear coal undertaking in Kemper County. The 2 sides agreed to direct $15 million towards photo voltaic initiatives for colleges in addition to vitality effectivity upgrades for low-income households.
“(The Kemper undertaking) was dangerous for lots of people, however one thing good got here out of it,” stated Rodger Wilder, president of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Neighborhood Basis.
To date, that cash has paid for photo voltaic panels in a dozen faculty districts, together with all of the panels within the Forrest County College District. faculty districts in Mississippi Energy’s service space will nonetheless obtain funding from the Coast basis, which is tasked with managing $15 million. Districts obtained grants of practically $250,000 to pay for photo voltaic panels in addition to to introduce renewable vitality into their curriculum.
Central District Public Service Commissioner Brent Bailey stated utilizing the cash from the Kemper settlement to fund the photo voltaic panel techniques helped show their effectiveness to individuals who might need been skeptical.
“If something, it is definitely helped educate faculty directors, faculty finance officers, amenities managers and others about what these techniques actually are,” Bailey stated. “I believe (the Kemper settlement) has been very useful in figuring out and debunking any myths.”
Three of Jackson County’s 4 faculty districts are already making the most of the brand new rule — Ocean Springs, Pascagoula-Gautier and Moss Level. Pearl River County is the one different county within the state with multiple district already utilizing solar energy.
Brooks McKay, director of operations for the Ocean Springs College District, stated he and others doubted how the photo voltaic panels would face up to the storms.
“There’s slightly reluctance on the coast to place one thing on the roof that prices $250,000 that you do not know if it is going to blow or not,” he stated.
However McKay stated the panels have held up properly because the district put in them atop its central workplace constructing two years in the past, and now the district is seeking to benefit from the rule change in PSC so as to add photo voltaic panels sooner or later.
“What we do not spend on vitality we are able to spend on (different issues),” stated McKay, who estimates the district will save about $300 a month on its electrical energy invoice throughout the summer time. “It may very well be instructor items, classroom provides, buses a spot we maintain.”
Different districts across the state may be lining up quickly: Throughout the PSC’s public remark interval on the web metering rule replace, superintendents from the next districts wrote in help of increasing the renewable vitality alternatives in colleges: Attala County, Enterprise, Greenville, Kemper County, Lauderdale County, Okolona, Union, Winona-Montgomery, Yazoo County and Newton County.
College districts in Mississippi Energy’s service space curious about grant alternatives to fund photo voltaic panel installations can attain out to the GCCF. A listing of Mississippi Energy districts and Entergy Mississippi service areas is obtainable right here.
The Mississippi Press’ Warren Kulo contributed to this report.
