Panther Valley School Board signed a letter of intent Wednesday night to allow a solar company to investigate putting panels on its property.

Solar panels would save the district at least $1,020,223 in electric costs over a 30-year period, Business Manager Jesse Walck said.

“That’s a very, very conservative estimate,” Walck said. The figure used to calculate an amount was a 2% to 3% increase over that time.

“The letter of intent allows the company to work to see how feasible it is,” Walck said.

The company will look at how many panels could be installed on an old football practice field, adjacent to the youth soccer field. Walck said the soccer field will remain intact.

On Wednesday, Alyssa Wingenfield, an engineer with McClure Company, presented the board with findings from an energy analysis the company performed.

Wingenfield said McClure looked for energy upgrades for the buildings such as the one the district made this summer when it installed LED lights. Wingenfield said interior transformers in the high school need upgrading. Switch gears at the elementary and high schools are at end-of-life and many of the breakers are frozen in the “on” position, Wingenfield said.

Wingenfield also said McClure suggests the district consider solar power. “There is what is called the Guaranteed Energy Savings Agreement,” Wingenfield said. “This is legislation that allows school districts to use basic utility dollars to fund energy and capital improvements.”

Walck said the company will be working through fall. If the district moves forward, the final design would be presented in spring.

Wingenfield then listed the three reasons to switch to solar.

“The first reason is tax credits. There is an investment tax credit from the federal government of 26% that will drop to 22% next year,” she said. “Basically, if you build this system, 26% of the cost can be reimbursed by the federal government.”

Because the school district is a public entity it is not eligible for tax rebates, Wingenfield said, but McClure is.

She said the Internal Revenue Service mandates that McClure own, operate and maintain the solar field for a minimum of five years, at which time McClure can apply for the tax rebate on the school district’s behalf, and that goes toward the installation costs.

The second reason is a rebate from PPL.

“In the last year,” Wingenfield said, “PPL came out with a half million dollar rebate for solar installations. Once McClure has a letter of intent from you, we get preapproved for that rebate. Those rebates are first come, first serve.”

The third reason is that the cost of electricity keeps rising, and the cost of solar panels are at a good price because there are more manufacturers, she said.

To qualify for the tax credit, McClure would maintain and operate the panels; the school district would maintain the property they are on, including grass cutting, fencing, etc.

The project would produce enough electricity for the high school and the intermediate school to be 100% solar.

Wingenfield outlined two possible agreements between the company and school district.

“A 30-year power purchase agreement means the school district would lease the panel for the maximum amount of time, which is 30 years. If you go with a shorter term, the amount of savings would go up. The 30-year program would have zero dollars down, no out-of-pocket expenses for the district,” Wingenfield said.

The second option Wingenfield presented was “a 5-year deal that means the school would buy the system outright after the five years.”

The school district can also take community solar into account. If Senate Bill 919 gets approved, the school district could expand the solar field and produce more electricity, possibly using the extra power for the elementary school or selling it to other community entities. The bill has been in the Senate for about a year now.

If the school district decides to sign a letter of intent with McClure, then the company can apply for the PPL rebate, Wingenfield said.

“We should do anything we can to cut costs,” Walck said.

He said the project will take about a year.

McClure is a 69-year-old construction management firm, specializing in kindergarten through 12th-grade construction projects.