Environmental activists, union electrical workers, and other citizens packed a classroom at Joshua Tree Elementary School to hear—and participate in—a presentation by a solar energy firm to the Morongo Unified School District Board of Education. Reporter Dan Stork attended also, and summarizes the proceedings…
PsomasFMG, in the persons of its VP for Business Development and its President, gave a pitch for its solar energy implementation services to the MUSD Board of Education, before the Board’s regular meeting. The VP, Alex Smith, said that the company has implemented solar energy generation for 71 schools in nine districts —five of them in the high desert—in Southern California. Smith said that his company projects a savings in the neighborhood of $7.85 million to $9.7 million over 25 years, compared to estimated Southern California Edison bills, should the District enter into a Power Purchase Agreement with PsomasFMG. In the first 15 years of the agreement, Smith claimed an average annual increase of 3.9 percent in cost to the District, with no increases in the final 10 years. In response to an audience question, the president of the company, Paul Mikos, said that MUSD could buy a system outright, instead of leasing—but even districts that are fat with bond money have chosen the path of leasing, in order to spend available money on school programs and buildings. In addition to cost savings and environmental benefits, Smith and Mikos talked about their track record in helping districts integrate the how-to of renewable energy technology into their math, science, and social studies curricula. They also stressed their company’s dominance in the school sector in Southern California, its experience with safety and schedule considerations in school environments, its commitment to the use of local labor, and the bonus of shade structures created by raised solar arrays. A Board committee of Donna Munoz and Karalee Hargrove was appointed to fast track a solar implementation, in consultation with District staff.
