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Solar panels installed at Wenatchee High School

Chelan County PUD
News Release
5/24/2004

Volunteers from Alcoa’s Wenatchee Works installed eight solar panels at Wenatchee High School on Friday, May 21. The high school is the first public school in Chelan County to receive the panels under Alcoa’s Community Solar Endowment.

St. Joseph’s School, a private school in Wenatchee, received eight solar panels on May 20.

The high school’s panels are located on the south side of the building at 1101 Millerdale, near the rear entrance. The panels are mounted on a pole that rotates to track the sun. This provides for maximum sun exposure and energy production.

Under the Alcoa endowment, all public schools in Chelan County will receive solar panels, along with six nonprofit community agencies. Alcoa is providing direct funds to purchase $439,740 in solar power equipment, plus arrange for labor valued at $666,810 by Alcoa employees to install the solar systems.

Pioneer Middle School and Newbery Elementary are the next schools scheduled to receive the solar panels. 

Half the revenue from solar power generation at each site will be returned to the school or nonprofit organization. The other half will be placed into a trust fund to be used at Alcoa’s discretion for community projects.

Payments to the participants for the energy generated will be made through Chelan County PUD’s SNAP (Sustainable Natural Alternative Power) program, which relies on customer donations for support. Estimates for the revenue that will be returned to the schools and nonprofit groups range from $164,000 to $300,000 over 10 years, depending on the number of panels at specific locations, the amount of energy generated and the community support for SNAP.

The estimates are based on the installation of up to 50 kilowatts of solar generation under the Alcoa endowment.  When the school installations are complete, Wenatchee will have more grid-connected solar power than any other city in Washington.

Chelan County PUD launched the SNAP program in 2001 and has eight local solar power producers and two local wind power producers. In the past year the program generated 34,329 kilowatt hours of electricity.

Students interested in learning more about alternative energy can visit the PUD’s Web site.

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Kimberlee Craig
Public Information Officer
509-661-4320
509-679-6858, cell
kimc@chelanpud.org