Solar Installation in a Class of Its Own

Carport solar project brings savings to the classroom and the environment.

Students returning to the Smithtown High School West campus this fall will park under a new clean energy solar parking structure. The new solar installation brings the benefits of carports—a cost-effective and innovative way to generate power—to Smithtown, a sprawling eastern New York City suburb on Long Island.

The school district administration understood the carport solar project would significantly reduce the overall electricity bill for the campus. Those savings are now reinvested in educational programs, proving educational solar projects are an investment in the future, in both education and the environment.

By installing solar panels on a parking structure, Smithtown High School West can now leverage this otherwise under-utilized surface to produce clean electricity and actively lower energy costs every day. The system was installed by Sunrise Power Solutions, the leading solar energy partner to the K-12 educational market in the New York area.

“This is a popular option among the K-12 municipal industry as money saved from lower energy bills can be directly reallocated back into education,” said Kristian Ingebrigtsen, chief operations officer at Sunrise Power Solutions.

The carport features 5,421 JA Solar panels and 29 SMA SUNNY TRIPOWER CORE1 inverters. The CORE1 products were ultimately selected for this project because of their flexibility,

reliability and competitive cost, which the school district considered as factors that would benefit the community.

“We were proud to work on this project as we know it will benefit the community for years to come,” said Ingebrigtsen .

The project has a total size of 2.06 MW and an estimated annual output of 3.345 KWH. Based on projections, the parking structure will offset 90% of the energy production for the campus, reducing both budget expenses and the amount of carbon in the environment.