Monday, December 21, 2015

SolEd wins Petaluma's Old Adobe School District Solar Project over five competitors despite no experience.

 From the Board minutes of the Old Adobe School District on 11/6/2014:


Todd Lee, reported to the Board that through the advertisement of the Request for

Proposals for the solar power purchase project he received 6 proposals and that 

only one ( SolED) was viable for the financing, and one (Sunlight & Power) for the 

actual construction/installation. The proposal outlines installing Solar at all sites

except for Loma Vista. Due to orientation constraints and expected usage,installing a

solar array at the Loma Vista site be a negative return on the investment. Todd Lee

explained the proposed options for the other four sites which included ground

mounted and shade structure arrays. The Board asked about previous conversations

regarding the solar project which focused on shade structures to support the solar

panels at all sites. Todd Lee introduced David Coonhart and Gary Gerber from

SolEd and Sunlight & Power to help answer questions. All three agreed that 

integrating shade structures with the solar project would cost more and cut too 

deeply into the energy savings predicted over 25 years. Todd Lee suggested the first

thing necessary for the district to do is a legal review of the proposal, then to meet

with Todd to review and rework the proposal options. The Board is also concerned

with public communication regarding construction at the sites and how the projects

will impact neighbors of the schools. The Board decided the direction would be to

further discuss design options, have a legal review done of the proposal, plan how

and what to communicate with the public, and sit down with Todd Lee to discuss

what works and what doesn’t as far as design and timeline. Images of possible

shade structures were requested. At 6:58 pm President Bendik moved to item D8

because he had to leave the meeting.

The contract was approved at the 2/12/2015 meeting HERE


Editor's Note: This is the first project that we can document that SolEd has completed but it was built by another company  "Sunlight & Power" that acquired  a stake in SolEd.   Note that Old Adobe School district receives advice that "shade structures will cut into savings"  In contrast,  David Kunhardt has pushed for solar shade structures despite the obvious increased cost and reduction of savings.  Why is he pushing this expensive option?

Also, how did SolEd win this contract with no documented experience?  Doesn't it seem odd that only one company was deemed acceptable? 

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