Little Rock, Arkansas – On Thursday, the board of the Little Rock School District voted in favor of approving a contract to use solar energy in an effort to reduce district expenses.
As per the deal between LRSD and Entegrity Energy Partners LLC, the district is expected to save a minimum of $4.7 million over a 25-year period, including savings of over $400k in the first year alone.
A board member for the Little Rock School District named Ali Noland stated that this action would assist in providing electricity to 25% of the district.
“There was a law that passed in the last legislative session that limited the size of the project we could do to a 5-megawatt project,” Noland said. “Were we not limited to that we could go bigger and could save three times as much money.”
Noland gave the district’s decision to use solar energy credit for the pupils’ education.
“This all started with a group of students a group of passionate students from Central High who came to the school board about a year ago and really advocated for the district to look at this,” Noland said. ” They made the case that it is financially in the best interest of the district and that it is in the best interest of our planet.”
According to Noland, the district will save millions of dollars if this action is taken.
“There’s a $40k cost up front and then our return is going to be $5 million to $7 million dollar savings which is great for us because we can use that money then to do other things for the district,” Noland said. “We can use our taxpayer funds more efficiently in order to provide more educational opportunities.”
Noland stated that she hopes students will be motivated to pursue careers in STEM in addition to saving money.
“We are mindful of what our students are interested in and we have students come to the board who really care about this,” Noland said.
The Little Rock School District claims that it spent more than $4.9 million on power last year.
According to the preliminary plan that LRSD was given, completion is scheduled for February 2025.