A new study was published by Penn Environment about the benefits and savings on solar panels for schools. It was presented to Erie's Public Schools on Wednesday.

The findings showed a lot of promise and district leaders said it opens the door for more studies to see if more solar panels would be helpful for Erie's Public Schools. 


Belle Sherwood, a Climate and Clean Energy Advocate for Penn Environment explained, "Schools can start looking into what solar could mean for their building and their community and taking time to look at their rooftops, their areas, their parking lots, doing some of the cost analysis to see what it would mean for schools putting solar again on their rooftops, in their parking lots."


According to the findings, schools in Erie County could save over $2 million dollars over the lifetime of solar panels by making the switch. This is just a study, what comes next is school leaders looking at the district as a whole and seeing where they can start making changes.


Assistant Superintendent of Operations, Neal Brockman, said he's open to seeing how solar panels could benefit their district, "It's time for us to sit down and see how we can make some of this possible, we have sixteen properties with schools, we've got awfully large fields, and I think it's probably time for us to do a study whether or not this would create the impact we would expect it to."


He said the district has already started to implement changes, like using electric buses. He also sees this as a good learning opportunities for their students.
According to Brockman, "The school property could become a laboratory and now it can become an educational tool for our students and now the students could be part of what needs to happen. So they will see the impact and then they will also see the mechanics behind it."

Another step that can move these projects along is by having state lawmakers push for more school grant programs in solar panels in the budget.