What’s New: Carson City School District Solar Panel Project

Resource Concepts, Inc. (RCI) has been providing professional civil engineering and survey services to the Carson City School District since 1998. In the summer of 2011, RCI was part of the planning and design team that worked together to install solar panels at five different school sites within the District. Solar panels capable of producing two megawatts of power were installed at Seeliger and Fritsch elementary schools, Carson Middle and Eagle Valley Middle schools and Carson High School. The largest footprint occured at Carson High School, covering approximately four acres of land on the east side of the campus. The role of RCI was to assist in the planning, which involved working with the District and its schools, the City, neighbors and the solar panel manufacturer to locate the panels within areas of each site that minimized impact to the community, maintained or enhanced school operations and provided maximum solar production. Additional RCI work included Special Use permitting through Carson City, site design and development, surveying and construction staking, and construction management support.

Carson High School

Carson Middle School

Eagle Valley Middle School

Seeliger Elementary School

Rebates being offered by NV Energy allowed the Carson City School District to purchase $11M worth of solar panels for approximately $975,000. This rebate, combined with a low interest loan and the School District being able to offset approximately 90% of its energy usage with solar energy, will allow the School District to save an estimated $400,000 per year on their utility bills. The $975,000 loan will be paid off in less than three years from the utility savings.