Completion: February 2012

Objective: To reduce fuel-oil heating bills for a high school.

Work Completed: The Sanborn Regional District installed a five-year-old high school with four Enerconcept Technologies Lubi™ solar hot air collectors, under a 10-year power purchase agreement. The collectors, which aesthetically appear as walls of windows, will cover 8,000 square feet of the school’s southern wall and use a black metal absorber. The 10-year contract, which is incentivized with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funds, enables the district to receive 1,400-mmBtu of thermal energy, which is equivalent to paying $2.50 per gallon of fuel oil. The environment also benefits from a displacement of 13,500 gallons of fuel oil and a reduction of 48 tons of CO2 emissions annually. Throughout the 30-year lifecycle of the solar collector, the school district could conceivably save more than $1.5 million in energy, displace 400,000 gallons of fuel oil, and eliminate 1,440 tons of CO2 emissions from the environment.

“We’re excited about this project because it won’t detract from our school’s appearance, offers a long-term alternative energy savings strategy, and helps stabilize the tremendous costs of heating a 220,000-square-foot facility.”
— Carol Coppola, business administrator, Sanborn Regional School District

Publication date: 03/05/2012