Jim Thorpe Area School District is exploring solar energy as a way to save on its electric bills.

On Wednesday, school board members signed a letter that would be the first step toward building solar panels on district property.

The letter directs McClure Company to complete a design study for a solar project.

“This is basically having the McClure Company do a study providing solar panels and solar energy to the district. There is no cost for this,” said Scott Pompa, president of the Jim Thorpe School Board.

School officials did not specify what sites they are looking at for solar. The district owns 141 acres in Penn Forest Township, in addition to 52 acres at the Penn Kidder Campus, 46.5 acres at the high school and 19.2 at LB Morris.

Under the Pa. Guaranteed Energy Savings Act, school districts can hire contractors to complete energy-saving projects without going through normal bidding requirements.

The projects carry an upfront cost, but the contractor has to guarantee that it will be less than the energy savings from the project over the next 20 years.

McClure has completed solar projects for districts around the state, and other energy savings projects in Palmerton and Panther Valley.

The number of schools which use solar energy is small, but growing. A report released earlier this year stated that solar capacity at schools in Pennsylvania has doubled in the past two years, but still remains below two percent.

According to the report by the nonprofit Generation180, Tamaqua Area School District has the second-largest solar capacity of any school district in the commonwealth.