Students benefit from the best thing under the sun

San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) wanted to capitalize on its sunny southern Californian climate by harnessing solar power to reduce its schools’ energy costs. However, with nearly 200 schools, 16,000 employees, and 135,000 students, SDUSD needed a flexible, scalable technology to go solar. 

Installer Main Street Power chose Enphase microinverters to install more than 125 arrays ranging from 30 to 250 kilowatts at SDUSD schools. Because of the design flexibility facilitated by the microinverters, each array could be fixed at the specific angle and orientation that would optimize energy production. Main Street Power also developed a K-12 “Train the Trainers” solar education program where science teachers could learn how to teach students about renewable energy and its benefits. To further engage students and visitors, each school hosts a kiosk displaying its solar system’s production data.