Solar Panel Proposal
Transcript: Why should Our school install solar panels? OBJECTIVE Our objective We, the Universal School's middle school robotics team, Construction Crew, would like to eliminate the school's high electricity bills, and even let the electricity make money for our school if possible. We also want our school to become a zero-carbon facility to help take care of our air and planet. This goal is actually possible with an affordable and recent kind of technology we have all heard of, solar panels. RESEARCH Research The upfront cost is $294K, which is a lot to pay, but that is the only cost before the low cost of maintenance. Over 20 years, we will save 488K on electricity bills and earn 158K, so overall, it will be 646K saved. The payback period to get only the money we spent is estimated at around only 1.5 years. The size of the system is 154,660 watts, so the price per watt is $1.90. It will give more than enough energy to power the school's electricity (exactly 114% of what we need). And if we connect the solar panels to where we normally get our energy, the excess power will roll back into the system, sending funds to your account What we just listed is about the money it will save us, but it will not only save money, but will also be better for the environment. Over 20 years, it will stop 3,080 tons of CO2 from being released into the environment and will stop 314,393 gallons of gas from being burned. We, as an Islamic school, should be khulafa to the Earth and take care of it. Since building solar panels not only better for the Earth, but also better for us, we should definitely take action. TIME Time This is a pretty steep down payment, so it will obviously take some time to get the money back. This is an estimate of how long. How long will it actually take to have them installed? If we start soon, the solar panels will be fully installed at around January of 2020. How long will it take to get the money back? Surprisingly enough, even with such a deep down-payment as 294K, it will only take about 1.5 years to get the money back. How long will it take to start making money from it? After the 1.5 years that we are getting the money back, we will start earning money from the panels. Over 20 years, we will earn around $646,000. Masjid and othEr options Options We have Here is what the Masjid did and some other options for us. As we all know, the Masjid across the street has installed solar panels. When we contacted them, we realized that they used theirs only for heating water. Even though their total cost was about 25K, they got grants for most of it, only paying 7K out of their pockets. They were the first solar masjid in the nation, and they used that to their advantage. Companies wanted to invest in something that they thought would start a chain reaction. What The Masjid did Masjid There are several ways to fund a solar project: We can pay cash if we have it up-front, or we can pay zero up-front, and enter into what's called a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). A PPA would mean an investor pays for the installation and maintenance of the system, and the school would pay for the power that the Solar PV system generates. The power from the solar would come at a fraction of the cost that the school currently pays for electricity, resulting in a significant reduction in overall utility expenditure on the school's behalf. Other options Other options