Six Ohio schools get solar and energy efficiency upgrades with no upfront costs

Inovateus Solar, a solar developer, and En-Trust, an energy service and finance company for K-12 education, announced last week that they are collaborating on ten solar and energy efficiency projects for six Ohio school districts.

Inovateus is in the process of completing 10 solar installations at the Ayersville, Elida, Holgate, Liberty, Wauseon and Millcreek-West Unity school districts. The smallest project is a 235.9-kW system installed for the Holgate School Corporation, while the largest is a 1.47-MW ground-mounted solar array that was recently completed at Elida’s High School.

The districts will also receive financing and energy efficiency upgrades from En-Trust that will increase utility savings and reduce operating costs. Efficiency improvements are designed for each school’s needs and often include new LED lighting, optimized hot water systems, smart thermostats, chiller and boiler replacements and additional renovations.

En-Trust will finance the improvements with a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA), as well as operate and maintain the projects. The school districts will have no upfront capital costs and only pay En-Trust for the generated solar power at a kWh rate that is lower than the utility’s rate.

In addition to thousands of dollars in energy savings, each school district will not only become more sustainable, but also have visible on-site educational opportunities for students to learn about energy efficiency and solar power generation.

These Ohio schools will join the more than 5500 schools and universities across the U.S. that are powered by solar energy.

Nathan Vogel, Vice President of Business Development at Inovateus Solar, said, “It’s typically difficult to finance school projects, but En-Trust has created a financing solution that truly makes it easy for schools to be more sustainable and to reduce their energy costs.”

Michael Campo, En-Trust’s Chief Financial Officer, added, “We’re glad to be working with Inovateus on these projects, and we look forward to working together on helping more schools to transition to clean energy and save on their utility costs.”