PRINCETON, N.J. & PHOENIX–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As students attend classes in several Arizona school districts this fall, the schools will be featuring on-campus solar arrays specially designed to meet their own electricity needs while providing the school’s faculty with new teaching tools. This clean solar energy program has been conceived by Arizona’s Kennedy Partners, LLC and co-developed by Kennedy, NRG Solar, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG), and in conjunction with Pinnacle West, APS and public officials across the state.
As a first stage of the program, NRG Solar and Kennedy Partners are building 12 large solar pavilions at schools which are part of the Continental Elementary School District in Green Valley, south of Tucson and the Gila Bend Unified School District, southwest of Phoenix. Additionally, NRG and Kennedy Partners are currently working on similar large scale projects at Payson Unified School District, northeast of Phoenix, and Arlington Elementary School District, west of Phoenix. This unique public/private partnership allows the schools to benefit not only from available utility incentives but also from the federal and state tax benefits.
The solar cells on these pavilions will collectively generate more than 2.5 megawatts (MW) of power for the schools, roughly the same amount of power consumed by more than 2,000 homes. In reducing greenhouse gases, this is the equivalent of taking more than 550 passenger vehicles off Arizona’s roads.