The California School Board Association (CSBA) and SunPower Corp. have partnered on a new program designed to lower the cost of electricity for school while saving California up to $2.5 billion through solar installations.

The program, announced on July 26, is already helping more than 90 schools go solar within the next year and could help nearly 1,000 school districts and county education offices throughout California go solar.

For instance, five schools in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District are going solar. The power generated arrays at the schools is expected to offset an average of 80 percent of the electricity costs at each school, according to a SunPower press release. In all, the schools could save the district more than $2 million in electricity costs in the first year, SunPower said.

The Solar Schools program could be adopted in other states to help their schools save money through solar as well, said SunPower’s Executive Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Policy Julie Blunden.

“We find that the circumstances in California are well suited to solar savings today,” she said.

SunPower has worked with California schools for a number of years now, according to Blunden.

“The volume of participation really took a couple years to come out,” she said. “It had been growing nicely.”

In 2010, however, the public sector became more aware of savings through bringing solar to schools and went through the process of developing a program and selecting a vendor to work with, she said.

The program focuses on developing efficiencies for going solar in a number of different ways. And SunPower is working with CSBA and schools to find the most efficient way for each school and school district.

“Our economies of scale lowers the transaction cost per school. When we’re able to install 50 [arrays] per school district, the cost is lower,” she said. “We can also optimize the systems per location.”

The company can install its modular Oasis system for larger installations, its T5 system for roof tops or its parking canopy installations, depending on which works best for the school.

“We have been working on evaluating financing structures, also. There are a variety of different options available for schools today. Different school systems matched with the best funding mechanisms,” Blunden said.

One of the biggest reasons to help more schools go solar is to increase tax relief for California residents, according to Blunden. Just one slice of the California Solar Incentive program, though the Solar Schools program, could save the state $2.5 billion.

“That’s a considerable return on investment from just one sector,” she said.

Pictured: The Inderkum High School in Sacramento. Image courtesy of SunPower.