L.A. Unified school district going solar
It’s not ironic that the Los Angels Unified School District (LAUSD) has a sun in its logo. Today the school district announced they will be investing $350 million dollar into solar panels to generate 50 megawatts of power by 2012. The solar panels will be located on sunny rooftops across a portfolio of buildings the school district owns. The goal of the investment in solar panels would be to lower the school districts 80 million dollar annual electric bill and allow for economic stimulus, by creating green collared jobs.
LAUSD will play an interesting teaching role in this project by offering solar installation training courses at their adult schools by using the coursework that was developed by Professor Brian Hurd at the East Los Angeles Skills Center, the leading solar panel installation class in the nation.
I say it’s about time LAUSD looks into solar panels to reduce their high energy expenses, I wonder if the school district has done everything possible to reduce their usage through energy efficiency? I like the fact they are involved in the training of the people who are going to end up installing the solar panels for LAUSD, this is a true economic stimulus that cannot go unheard. The proposed project will clean up the air we breathe, save LAUSD millions of dollars per year on energy expenses, and create green collared jobs. On top of that LA is such a great place for solar panels, we have an average sun hours (solar irradiation) of 5.5 per day. What do you think, is this a move in the right direction for LAUSD?
