Carson City schools lead statewide effort to save money with efficient lighting
Submitted by editor on Fri, 08/26/2011 - 10:13am
By Sean Sever
With shrinking budgets and rising energy costs, many of Nevada’s school districts have turned to renewable energy and energy conservation measures to save money. The Carson City School District, for example, has used the Nevada State Office of Energy’s (NSOE) Schools Program to install new LED and Super T-8 fluorescent lighting at three schools that will save them almost $80,000 in energy costs annually.
The state's cities and counties are following suit, switching out their street lamps and lights to save money. But it is comforting that Carson City School District has led the charge.
“Our objective is to use capital funds to improve efficiencies and return the savings back into the classroom,” CCSD Manager of Operation Services Mark Korinek said. “Not only are we saving money and improving operations, but we are providing a better learning environment for students, staff, and anyone else that utilizes our facilities.”
About 4,600 lights were replaced at Fremont and Mark Twain Elementary Schools, which will results in approximately $29,000 in energy savings at each school. Both schools are identical in size at 60,000 square feet and have student populations close to 600.
About 1,000 lights were replaced inside Carson High School and 47 LED lights were installed in their north parking lot, which totals about one third of the lights in the 330,000 square foot facility. This completed a total lighting retrofit at the high school, as they had replaced the other two thirds of their T12 lamps with more efficient lighting over the past few years. The new interior lamps and the LED parking lot lights are expected to save the school about $21,400 a year.
As part of a separate project, the CCSD is almost finished with two megawatts of photovoltaic solar panels on various schools in Carson City, with just under one megawatt at Carson High School. “This is the largest renewable energy schools project in the state,” Korinek added. “It will save us about $500,000 annually in energy costs and the return on investment is only 2.8 years with the utility rebate we received.”
Sixteen of Nevada’s school districts have completed or are working on similar projects through the NSOE’s $9.5 million program, which was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Each district received $441,176 to assist with energy efficient lighting replacements, HVAC system upgrades, energy conservation measures, and renewable energy installations. Larger per capita counties, Washoe and Clark, received an additional $1 million each. Learn more about the NSOE at www.energy.nv.gov.
— Writer Sean Sever is the Energy Outreach Coordinator for the Nevada Office of Energy.
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