Hopkins facilities director outlines $704,000-to-date savings from community solar; on-site arrays and efficiency plans reviewed
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Summary
Director of buildings and grounds presented a utilities update showing $704,000 saved from community solar since 2019, approximately $77,000 saved from on-site generation in 2023, and proposed HVAC and LED measures that could save as much as roughly $300,000 annually if fully implemented.
Hopkins Public School District staff briefed the board on Nov. 18 on the district's energy portfolio, explaining how community-solar subscriptions, on-site solar arrays and operational changes contribute to utility savings.
Director of buildings and grounds Gino told the board the district's 25-year community-solar agreement with US Solar is in its seventh year and has produced $704,000 in bill credits since 2019; US Solar projects lifetime bill-credit savings of about $4.6 million over the contract term, though Gino emphasized those figures are projections and may vary with production. "We are in year 7... we've seen $704,000 of savings since 2019," he said.
Gino said on-site arrays at the high school and West Middle School produced about 1.4 million kWh in 2023, translating to roughly $77,000 in annual savings. He described operational measures to lower energy use, such as setting standardized classroom temperature setpoints, programming unoccupied HVAC schedules and upgrading the remaining building lighting to LED. He estimated a potential annual savings "of approximately 300,000" if the district can reach a target of roughly $1.00 per square foot in energy costs.
Board members asked about expanding subscriptions and whether community solar or on-site arrays can provide building backup during outages. Gino replied that community solar feeds the grid and cannot directly serve as a building-level backup; he said the high school has a generator and he would follow up on backup capability at other buildings. He also said Xcel Energy and interconnection rules limit how much additional solar the district can take and that he is investigating whether additional subscriptions or rooftop capacity are possible under those caps.
The board thanked staff for the report and asked the administration to follow up with more recent energy invoice data beyond the 2023 figures presented and to return with any opportunities to increase solar capacity or achieve the efficiency targets.
