Case Study-Lemon Grove School District

Site 1: 190 kW Palm Middle School. 8425 Palm Street Lemon Grove, CA 91945

Site 2: 190 kW Mt. Vernon Elementary School 8350 Mt. Vernon St Lemon Grove, CA 91945

Site 3: 150 kW San Miguel Middle School 7059 San Miguel Ave Lemon Grove, CA 91945

System Capacity: 530Kw

Project Status: Completed - August 2005

Panel Mfg: RWE Schott Solar

Number of Panels: 1,767

Inverters: Satcon

Area Covered: 71,000 square feet

Warranty: 5 Year Comprehensive on the System, 25 Years on Solar Panels

Background

Over the last several years, the Lemon Grove School District had been looking for effective ways to insulate themselves against rising energy costs. After thoroughly investigating many options, the District decided that they would rather purchase electricity from a clean and renewable source at a cost they could clearly budget for, versus continuing to purchase non-renewable electricity from their local utility company, San Diego Gas & Electric with unknown rate increases.

By using solar to provide approximately 85-95% of each site’s electricity needs, Lemon Grove will pay virtually nothing for electricity once the solar systems are paid off. Lemon Grove School District is beyond doubt a pioneer among California’s K-12 Public Schools. They have already paved the way for technology education and are now leading the way in renewable energy education. Financial Benefits Over the next 30 years, the District expects to save over five million dollars in electricity bills, a conservative figure, versus what they would have expected to pay for that electricity from San Diego Gas & Electric.

Unlimited Energy’s Role

Unlimited Energy was chosen to install the Lemon Grove School District system, in large part, due to our long running track record of being pioneers in the PV industry. The importance of having one contractor in charge of the process was illustrated here. As we have seen so many times, the third party design of the system was inferior. Unlimited Energy’s team of experts engineered an efficient, superior blueprint for the project that replaced the original schema. The result was a system that exceeded expectations. We are proud to make known that Unlimited Energy is one of only a few companies in California that is invited to periodically review the C-46 contractor’s license exam. Our extensive and ongoing field experience has made us the logical choice for many who implement large commercial, industrial, agricultural, and municipal solar projects throughout the State of California.