Dixie Schools Waiting for Green Light to Install Solar Panels

Solar panel installations at four Dixie School District schools are on hold until a state agency can approve the design plans. But the review process currently averages four months, possibly delaying construction until the fall when classes begin.

About 1,750 students attending Dixie, Vallecito, Mary E. Silveira, and Miller Creek Middle schools were told last year that their facilities would be running in May.  

Thomas Lohwasser, superintendent of the Dixie district said it could be an "educational opportunity" for students to see the contractors  installing solar panels on the roof.  But he would have preferred the construction take place during the summer.

Structural engineers at California's Department of the State Architect are responsible for reviewing construction plans submitted by any of the 2,000 school districts in the state. Due to budget cuts, the office is closed most Fridays, but officials don't attribute that to the delay.  

"It can take four to 12 weeks total, depending on the complexity and how good the plans are when they were originally submitted," said spokesman Jeffery Young. "Furloughs don't have anything to do with it."

If the submission is not correct, then plans get returned back to the school district, Young said.

So far, the agency has requested additional information from the Dixie School District.  "We're fast-tracking information to them," Lohwasser said.  

The design plans for the last school sites were submitted in May, said Ray Nagai, project manager. All four schools are slated to have rooftop panels, he said. Mostly south-facing roofs were chosen, where one edge would be extended to hold a panel.  The panels would not be visible from the street or parking lot, which means they could be vulnerable to theft, he said.

"We need the community to help us police the modules. Even though we are installing a security system, thieves can get still get around things like that," Nagai said.  In Marin, both San Rafael High School and Lagunitas Elementary have had panels stolen.

The district will buy the solar panels with a federal allocation of Clean Renewable Energy Bonds. Funding from the Marin Community Foundation  will cover some of the costs, and the project is expected to pay for itself in two decades.

The solar project altogether will cost an estimated $2.7 million, but should supply the majority of the district's energy needs. In the summer when school is out, the district plans to sell the excess electricity it generates. 

The bidding process generated only one solid proposal that was in the district's price range, Lohwasser said.  The contractor, Petersen-Dean, is a national roofing company based in Alameda County that specializes in solar panels. It plans to not only install the panels, but also replace the roof underneath.

A background check on Petersen-Dean showed a mostly clean record, with one lawsuit involving a public education institution. San Mateo County Community College District sought damages worth $600,000 from a modernization and seismic retrofit of the Skyline College gym. Legal documents from the court state in the fall of 2005, an open roof in the process of being replaced was not covered properly during a rainstorm. The result was water damage and damage to equipment. Petersen-Dean was subcontracted by a general contractor to complete the roof of the gym for $142,045.  

The multiple-year dispute ended this year under a confidential agreement, according to David A. Harris, an attorney for Petersen-Dean.  In an email, he said the lawsuit ended amicably with no admission of wrongdoing by the company.

Although the bid cannot not officially be awarded until the final plans are approved, the school district met with the contractor on June 24 for a pre-construction meeting.  The actual installation is expected to take four to six weeks.  

 Most solar advocates will agree that the financing, not the construction, is the hardest part.  "The money side is most important. It can make or break it," said Tom Kelly, an advocate of solar schools from KyotoUSA.org and the Helios Project in Berkeley. 

Although 16 public and private schools in Marin County use solar panels, they range in power.  At 412 kilowatts, San Domenico School in Sleepy Hollow, a private Catholic school, has the largest solar project among schools in Marin. Others use 1.4 kilowatt solar projects, enough to power one classroom, for demonstrative purposes.

Once the panels are up, Dixie School District will have the third largest solar project among school districts in Marin County, behind Kentfield Unified and Ross Valley.

For more details on solar schools in Marin County, click  HYPERLINK "http://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=162775" here.