Solar  -  October 26, 2021

Virginia School Counties to Install Onsite Solar

Two school counties in Southwest Virginia will soon be receiving solar installations at nine different campuses.

Wise and Lee counties are working with Secure Futures Solar on PPAs that include no upfront cost requirement. Wise County is expected to save $7.5 million during the 20-year agreement covering solar power at four elementary and middle schools, while Lee County expects to save $4 million in energy costs through a 25-year agreement for solar at five elementary, middle and high schools.

The solar installations are the result of Secure Futures’ Securing Solar for Southwest Virginia initiative in partnership with the Solar Workgroup of Southwest Virginia. The initiative plans to work on five projects over a two-year period with a total generating capacity of 10 MW.

Secure Futures established a locally-based solar installation company, Lonesome Pine Solar, to carry out the installations and employ newly trained workers, in addition to providing onsite commercial and residential solar in the future once the project is completed.

“We hope that momentum from our ambassador projects will stimulate demand for additional schools, hospitals, businesses and homeowners to go solar in Southwest Virginia and to consider Lonesome Pine as their first choice,” Anthony Smith, president of Secure Futures, said in a statement. “With enough activity, this locally based effort can generate more solar jobs and ripple out into local spending and investment that benefits the whole community.”