Greenskies to Build Solar Arrays at 8 Schools in 4 Connecticut Towns

Press Release | Middletown, CT
March 4, 2015

Greenskies Renewable Energy, a Middletown-based solar energy company, said today it expects to complete the installation of eight separate photovoltaic solar projects at eight public schools in four Connecticut towns by this fall.

Collectively, the eight solar arrays will produce about 2,439 kilowatts of clean electric energy, said James Desantos, Greenskies’ vice president of business development and government relations.

The projects include a 132-kilowatt ground-mounted solar array at the Canterbury Elementary School; a 132-kilowatt roof-mounted system at the Jared Eliot Middle School and a second 132-kilowatt roof-mounted installation at the Joel Elementary School in Clinton; a 725-kilowatt roof-mounted array at Fairfield Warde High School and a 527-kilowatt roof-mounted system at Fairfield Ludlowe High School; and a 143-kilowatt roof-mounted solar array at Plantsville Elementary School, a 324-kilowatt ground-mounted system at the South End Elementary School and a 324-kilowatt ground-mounted project at the Hatton Elementary School in Southington.

Under the power-purchase agreements Greenskies has entered with each town, the company will design, develop, finance, own and maintain each of the eight solar installations for the next 20 years while the respective municipalities agree to purchase 100 percent of the electricity produced at the sites at a fixed and significantly discounted rate.

The power generated at the schools will be used to help offset the energy costs at each facility, Desantos said. Since the sizes and designs of the solar arrays vary from school to school just as the schools vary from each other in their design, layout and square footage, the energy offsets will vary at each location, he said.

Greenskies hopes to start construction of the Canterbury project this spring and complete it by this summer, Desantos said. The company is anticipating that the two Clinton projects will be completed in April, he added. The two Fairfield projects are expected to begin construction in the late summer or early fall, pending the completion of other renovation work at each site, he said. The roof-mounted project in Southington is expected to be completed this spring, while the two ground-mounted installations will be completed during the summer months, he said.

Greenskies designs, builds and maintains solar photovoltaic systems for corporate and retail clients, municipalities and government agencies, educational institutions and utilities throughout the United States. Solar installations designed and built by Greenskies have now produced more than 12 million kilowatt hours of electric power.