On November 1, 2012, Ursula Syrova, Energy Education Specialist for SSD delivered the most recent Energy Conservation Savings report to the School Board, detailing more than three full years of tracking and measuring energy use adjustments while simultaneously tracking all usage in detail via an Energy CAP database. Over this period of time, the District has avoided spending over $467,400 for energy, which is a 17% reduction in our energy usage compared to the base year of 2008-2009. This avoided cost for energy usage does not include the savings generated by Sunnyvale School District producing its own electricity via solar installations at eight of our ten school sites. Lifetime solar production for the District is currently over 496,700kWh of electricity with more production being generated daily. This is roughly 3% of the District’s usage and would have cost more than $95,000 to purchase the electricity from PG&E.
Energy Conservation savings has been achieved through adjusting the running time of heating and cooling systems, lighting controls, appliances, and the many and varied small electronic devices present in most classrooms. Through the efforts of all level of staff and students, our savings have quickly built up.
For those who may wonder about such things, the database accounts for changes in weather, use, and square footage. For more information about the methodology of the avoided cost calculations (along with a running “solar ticker” and much more), please visit the Energy Conservation web site at www.bitly.com/SSD_Energy.
Article brief by Ursula Syrova
