Jim Thorpe Area School District officials want to do more legwork on a solar panel energy system benefits analysis from The McClure Company before deciding to move forward with a project.

During the last building and grounds committee meeting, Jim Thorpe’s administration outlined the company’s projected savings of $3.8 million over 30 years, but urged caution over an assumed 3% increase each year in the district’s current energy costs used to generate that figure.

While McClure’s proposal uses the district’s current annual energy cost, $285,466, it uses a 3% escalator each year, which would mean the district would pay $1 million in year 30 if it didn’t switch to solar.

“If you believe that our current energy costs are going to go up 3% each year, then this solar proposal works out,” Superintendent Robert Presley said. “If you don’t believe that, there probably isn’t much point in going forward.”

According to McClure’s proposal, the district utilizes approximately more than 2.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity at the high school, L.B. Morris Elementary, and Penn-Kidder Campus, based on electricity bills from 2021 and 2022. The company proposed two ground mounted solar arrays totaling 2,355 kilowatts behind the high school and Penn-Kidder Campus.

“The district currently uses the space where the solar arrays would be placed for a football practice field and for track and field throwing events,” Presley said. “If this project went forward, we’d have to look at where are we going to move those areas to.”

McClure’s $3.8 million savings projection includes solar maintenance and inverter replacement in year 15, savings from tax credits, accelerated depreciation, Solar Renewable Energy Credits, and generated electricity. Should it move forward with the system, Jim Thorpe would have the opportunity to buy it outright after five years.

Jim Thorpe’s board asked Presley to contact other districts which have taken on solar projects to see how their results have played out.

Last month, Lehighton Area School District chose Ecogy Energy as a vendor to spearhead a solar project it expects will save them several million dollars in energy costs over a 25-year period.

The project includes a roof-mount solar panel system on each of Lehighton’s three schools.

“The savings could be anywhere from $2.1 to $6 million,” Lehighton Business Manager Ed Rarick said.

Tamaqua Area School District completed a 2,500 kilowatt ground-mounted solar array project in the fall of 2020.

While McClure would need to guarantee Jim Thorpe’s kilowatt-hour output, meaning if the system underperforms it must financially make up the difference, Presley said there is no guarantee on cost savings.

“If our electric doesn’t go up by 3% every year, our amount of savings goes down,” Presley said. “In fact, we could be paying more at some point with solar. We’re going to talk to people who have these and find out if it is panning out the way they thought it would.”