Lehighton Area School District tapped a Brooklyn-based energy company Monday night to spearhead a solar project it expects will save them several million dollars in energy costs over a 25-year period.

By a 5-2 vote, Lehighton’s board of directors opted for Ecogy Energy over Provident/Wunder as vendor for the project, which will include a roof-mount solar panel system on each of Lehighton’s three schools.

According to estimates attached to Lehighton’s meeting agenda, both companies projected a first-year energy rate of around 8 cents per kilowatt-hour, roughly 70% in monthly energy offset, and around $5 million in 2% utility escalator savings over the contract term. Lehighton’s current utility rate is 15.61 cents per kilowatt hour.

“My slight preference was for Ecogy,” Board President Joy Beers said of the decision. “Their numbers look good but on top of that, the person they sent here to do a proposal for us seemed to be very technically competent. He wasn’t just a salesman and seemed intimately involved in the business.”

According to Ecogy’s proposal, the electricity generated by the solar systems is consumed on-site at a discounted rate compared to borough of Lehighton rates, therefore “generating electricity savings day by day as well as creating a hedge against future utility rate increases and inflation.”

“There is no upfront cost to the district,” Ecogy development manager Joel Santisteban said during a visit to Lehighton in 2022. “The money the district pays is when it buys the electricity generated from the solar system from us. We don’t make money until the system is up and running and operational. Then you buy those kilowatt-hours from us.”

Savings estimates went up after Lehighton Borough Light and Power told the district it could generate more power from the panels on a monthly basis than it was initially expecting.

“Lehighton Light and Power doesn’t do net metering, so we can’t carry electricity from month to month if we generate more than we need,” LASD Business Manager Edward Rarick said in January. “But we can use whatever we generate in the current month, so that would put us in the 60-70% generation range each month as opposed to the 40% we were expecting.”

Dissenting votes were cast Monday by Barbara Bowes and Richard Beltz. Bowes said she leaned toward Provident as the vendor choice because of a difference in cost should the panels need to removed and reinstalled for any reason.

Ecogy’s proposal lists that cost at 30-cents per watt for its 1,742-kilowatt system, while Provident’s estimate came in at 20-cents per watt for its 1,800-kilowatt system.

“For a bean counter like me, that 10 cents could be significant and add up to thousands of dollars,” Bowes said. “That being said, I think we do need to do the solar program. We’re going to see big savings.”

Monday’s approval of Ecogy is just the start of the solar project process, district officials said.

“By no means is anything final at this point,” Rarick said. “From here, Ecogy can move forward with generating a contract and continuing discussions with Lehighton Borough. The board isn’t committing to anything other than choosing a vendor tonight.”