BUTLER TWP — With the chance to lock in a much cheaper electricity rate, Butler Area School District is considering establishing solar power on its premises.

District officials discussed the idea, which would involve having solar panels installed on one to three school rooftops, at a Committee of the Whole meeting Monday evening, March 9.

Superintendent Brian White presented three options to the committee: entering a power purchasing agreement with an energy provider, establishing its own solar power system or deferring solar options altogether. He said the administration is “close” but not ready to give a recommendation as to which option is best.

Option 1 is a power purchase agreement — an agreement between a property owner and an energy provider that allows the provider to build a renewable energy system on the property with the promise of a discounted rate.

According to White’s proposal, the district would look to install solar panels on three schools: McQuistion and Emily Brittain elementary schools and the senior high school.

White said the district would pay $0.0755 per kilowatt-hour in the contract’s first year with a 1.5% increase each year after. The three rooftops are estimated to generate 1,325 megawatt-hours of electricity per year.

White said the rate would not really be much cheaper compared to what the district is currently paying, but mentioned the advantage of a locked-in increase of 1.5%.

“That’s our energy cost all the way through, OK? Now, with the energy increases we’ve been experiencing lately, it sounds pretty advantageous. We’re not seeing 1.5%,” White said.

The contract will have an initial term of 28 years, with the option for the district to purchase the solar power system outright after six years of the agreement.

White said the power purchase agreement would only cover about 15% of the district’s electricity usage.

A second option presented that would also utilize solar power was the option of the district establishing its own system.

“I’m not an advocate of the option of district ownership for a variety of reasons,” White said.

He said the district’s version would just cover the high school roof and cost roughly $1.5 million. He said the state would provide about $480,000, leaving the district with about $1.02 million to pay off over a period of 24 years.

“For me, the bigger piece comes back to the fact that we’re now maintaining the solar system. We’re assuming the risk. If it doesn’t work, we’re the ones that have to go fix it, which could turn into a whole new job category,” White said.

White said his next steps are to pursue a more detailed financial analysis and to get clarification on how the panels could connect to the schools before presenting more information to the board.