Forest Lake Area School District
Challenge
The Forest Lake Area School District is looking to the future by working with Apex to install solar panels at many of its district buildings. Apex helped develop a new model for financing and implementing solar energy projects by using an incentive program provided by Xcel Energy. The Forest Lake Area School District has successfully adopted this model on it’s newest solar project to maximize their overall savings while minimizing their financial investment. The district has no up-front costs and will bring in more than $200,000 in energy savings in 2016. In addition to the 2016 savings, the district will save $80,000-$100,000 each year after that.
Our Solution
Our new model utilizes a third party tax investor who owns, insures, operates and maintains the panels located on school roofs. Combining the tax investor with Xcel Energy’s solar incentive program allowed the district and Apex to obtain nearly 2 megawatts of solar panels.
Final Result
The solar panels will create a 2.4 million kWh of renewable energy each year. That’s equivalent of removing 348 cars from the roadway each year or taking 248 average homes off the electrical grid.
Equally beneficial to this project was the ability for the district to add a comprehensive Solar Energy Unit to their curriculum.
Project Numbers:
Zero Up Front Costs to District
Guaranteed Savings: $5 Million over 20 Years
$200,000 in 1st Year
$80K-$100K in Years 2-20
$600K-$700K in Years 21-25
Renewable Energy Produced: 2.4 Million kWh/Yr.
“We are excited about this solar model we created with Apex and the results it will have on the financial health of both the district and our taxpayers.”
