High School Solar Panels at Work!
21 Aug 2011 |
 |
 |
As part of a district-wide sustainability initiative, the Mountain View Los Altos High School District installed solar photovoltaic shade canopies in the parking lots to help offset electricity use at the two high school campuses. The system, turned on around Earth Day 2011, is expected to provide enough power to meet half of the district’s electricity needs. You can now view real-time data on how much electricity the system is generating at each school (see Los Altos High School or Mountain View High School) as well as information on carbon emissions and pollutants avoided as a result of using the sun’s energy for electricity (note: though these numbers are based on coal-fired plants and not the PG&E electricity mix).
Here’s an overview:
Los Altos High School’s system has the following features:
- 34,000 square feet of solar panels that provide parking lot shade
- a rated capacity of 464 kW; and
- generated over 393,000 kWh of electricity since installed
Mountain View High School’s system has the following features:
- 57,000 square feet of solar panels that provide parking lot shade
- a rated capacity of 776 kW; and
- generated over 517,000 kWh of electricity since installed
Over their life to date, the High School District’s two systems have generated enough energy to provide 1,028 home with power for a month or to drive the family sedan 1.38 million miles!
Thanks to Sybil Cramer, Los Altos High School Green Team Liaison, for letting GreenTown know about this site. Go solar!
