School Solar Panel Project Moves Forward

A plan to install solar panels on several Culver City schools and bolster the district's strapped budget at the same time is one step closer to being realized as of last week, with the school board sending out an official Request For Proposals in order to find a contractor for the project. The solar panels have the dual ability to not only decrease the electric bill of the hosting schools, but also kick back rebate money into the general fund—making the ending price tag even cheaper. 

"The RFP is going out and we'll take it from there," said CCUSD Superintendent Patricia Jaffe.

However, there has been considerable confusion as to whether the RFP was even necessary in the first place, said Todd Johnson, who is the chair of the committee spearheading the solar panel project. 

The project has been in the works for several months. Thanks to rebates being made available through the California Solar Initiative (CSI), the CCUSD, like many other school districts in the state, can use funds that are only available for construction projects to install solar panels on school rooftops, then put any rebate funds received from such projects into the district's general fund that pays for the running of the schools, including teacher salaries.

But because the rebates are available on a first-come, first served basis, there is some urgency to apply for the rebates before the funds run out. Johnson's committee found that the district could lock in the rebate by applying to the CSI directly and submitting a deposit. The school board directed district staff to begin the application process in February.

At a March board meeting, the school board questioned Ali Dellawalla, Assistant Superintendent, Business Services, about why the rebate application was taking so long. Dellawalla explained that an RFP was needed and a contractor for the project selected and that the contractor would apply for the rebates through Southern California Edison, which is administering the rebates for the CSI.
Both Jaffe and Dellawalla later said that because the deposit is non-refundable, it was decided to use the RFP process rather than risk $20,000 or more on a project that might fall through.

"If you deposit whatever the requirement is," Dellawalla said. "And then you do the RFP and decide that it's not feasible, the deposit is non-refundable. So it's best that you do the RFP and understand the cost and then make a decision."

Tom Kelly of advcacy group Kyoto.org, a group that is actively helping school districts and others apply for solar rebates in California, said that both applying directly to the CSI and having a contractor apply through the electricity supplier (Edison, in this case) are acceptable. 

Kelly said that, as of mid-April, the funds available through SoCal Edison are not in immediate danger of running out.

"It's not like a rush situation for your utility company," Kelly said, after checking the availability with triggertracker.com. "It's at step 8 and there is probably another 62 megawatts. They don't have to do it today. There's enough time to do this thoughtfully."

The website (and CSI) measures the rebate funds available in terms of megawatts a project will produce.

However, Kelly said that while it seems to be fairly quiet in terms of potential project applications coming through, rebate money can disappear quickly if several schools apply at once.

"I've seen 40 to 50 megawatts disappear in a couple weeks," Kelly said.
Jaffe said that contractors have 30 days to respond to the district's RFP, then expects the board and staff to take another two weeks to choose a contractor and get the bid through.