Since 2017 Oyster River Cooperative School District has been going beyond academics to invest in the future of their community. They installed a 79-panel solar array on the roof of the school district's maintenance building that will produce roughly 27,750 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, offsetting the equivalent of driving over 50,600 miles in a gas-powered car.
ORCSD serves the communities of Durham, Lee, and Madbury. They financed their solar array through a Power Purchase Agreement, in which an investor owns the array while the district pays for the power generated from the solar panels each month. This allows ORCSD to take advantage of reduced energy costs without paying anything upfront, and gives them the option to buy the solar array outright in the future at a significantly reduced price.
ORCSD also focuses on sourcing local, nutritious food and investing in energy efficient equipment - steps that alongside their solar array help to lower costs for their taxpayers and reduce their carbon footprint.
