Bowling Green school goes solar

Pretty soon Bowling Green won’t just be the name of a classic folk song and home to the Corvette History Museum. When Bowling Green, Ky.’s, Richardsville Elementary School is completed, it will be powered by a 340 kilowatt photovoltaic rooftop array. When Richardsville Elementary students go back to school this fall, it won’t just be in a PV-powered school, it will also be the largest PV system in Kentucky and the first net-zero school in the United States.

The school’s 40,000 square foot PV roof is being built by Morton Solar & Wind, LLC, which won a $2.16 million contract to install solar panels on the roof. Morton will work with Advanced Electrical Systems of Kentucky and will install United Solar UNI-SOLAR thin-film laminate PV products on Richardsville’s roof. The school will be grid-tied and extra power produced by the panels will be sold back to local utility at 22 cents per kilowatt/hour through the Green Power Partners program of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

As a net-zero energy building, the school should never have an electric or gas bill, and because of its highly-efficient design, should actually generate some extra income by selling excess energy produced back to the grid.

To achieve net-zero energy use, Sherman-Carter-Barnhart P.S.C., the architectural firm that designed the school, focused on key elements of energy efficiency to help reduce energy use in the building by 75 percent over conventional buildings. It uses day-lighting with light shelves and light tubes, which students will find more relaxing than fluorescent bulbs. The school also has a geothermal heating and cooling system. The school’s kitchen is filled with Energy Star products to help reduce its energy use. And its building envelope is highly efficient, reducing heating and cooling needs.

The 82,000 square foot facility was designed at a cost of $175.61 per square foot. When completed it will house about 500 students. The project was registered for LEED Platinum Certification with the U.S. Green Building Council, and will likely receive it upon completion.

Still, the deadline is looming, and contractors are running a little behind, according to recent news reports. Construction on the school was slated to finish in August 2010, just in time for the new semester, but students may have to wait up to four weeks to move into their new building.