KENNETT SQUARE, PA — Unionville High School recently activated a 650-kilowatt rooftop solar array that is expected to cut electricity costs by about $75,000 annually and save the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District more than $1 million over 25 years, according to reporting by WHYY.
The system is expected to supply roughly 25% of the electricity consumed by the high school and district office. District officials estimate the resulting utility savings will recover the project’s upfront cost in about seven years, WHYY reported.
“The state grant almost made it like a no-brainer to do it,” James Whitesel, the district’s director of facilities, told WHYY.
The project was installed through Pennsylvania’s Solar for Schools program, which provides grants to help eligible schools pay for solar equipment, installation, permitting, energy storage and utility interconnection. Grant awards can cover as much as 75% of eligible project costs, subject to funding limits determined by a school entity’s aid ratio.
Pennsylvania established the program in 2024 as a mechanism for reducing the upfront cost of school solar projects. The state had invested about $27.2 million in 84 schools through the program as of Aug. 25, according to the Shapiro administration.
The 2026-27 state budget provides another $25 million for Solar for Schools as part of $125 million allocated for school infrastructure improvements.
At Unionville, the financial return will be accompanied by an instructional component. Students in math and science classes will have access to real-time electricity-production data from the panels and will be able to examine the rooftop system during supervised visits, according to Whitesel’s comments to WHYY.
The array will also reduce the amount of electricity the district draws from the regional power grid.
“It also is about being good stewards of our environment,” Whitesel told WHYY. “If we’re using less of those electrical resources, then there’s less that has to be generated to support our site.”
The Unionville project is part of a broader expansion of school-based solar installations in Pennsylvania as districts use state subsidies to offset capital costs and reduce longer-term electricity expenses.
Read the original article from WHYY at https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphia-schools-solar-energy-state-grant/
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