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If you are a principal, teacher, county employee, parent, or community member who is interested in having a solar energy (photovoltaic) system installed on a school or college near you, you're in the right place!

We have put together a small packet called "Information For Schools" [Adobe Acrobat PDF, 402kb] that describes how the solar energy system will interact with the school/college, what equipment is required, what educational opportunities are available, and a general timeline. If this packet does not answer your questions you can:

• Review the frequently asked questions page.
• Email us at: sunsmart@fsec.ucf.edu.

Webinar Materials

Webinar 3 - June 23, 2011
The following materials were prepared for the Facility Manager's webinar (held on June 23, 2011) or generated as a result of the webinar.

• Video of the webinar [External link to Vimeo]

 

Webinar 2 - Feb. 09, 2011
The following materials were prepared for the Facility Manager's webinar (held on Feb. 09, 2011) or generated as a result of the webinar.

• Video of the webinar [External link to Vimeo]
• Presentation Slides [Adobe Acrobat PDF, 2.5MB]
• Question and Answer Transcript [Rich Text Format file, 68kb]
• Example Permit Package [Adobe Acrobat PDF, 7.19MB]

 

Webinar 1 - May 12, 2010
The following materials were prepared for the school webinar (held on May 12, 2010) and generated as a result of the webinar.

• Presentation Slides [Adobe Acrobat PDF, 587kb]
• Question and Answer Transcript [MS Word Document, 21kb]

SunSmart Schools Emergency Shelters Finalists Selected

90 finalist schools (list below) have been selected to participate in the SunSmart Schools Emergency Shelter program.

Selected schools are asked to complete the "School Agreement Form" (224kb, Adobe Acrobat PDF) as soon as possible, the site visit team will be able to answer any questions you have about this document.

Please be aware that final acceptance into the program is dependent on a successful visit to the school by the FSEC engineering and emergency management team to determine site suitability. Representative from the SunSmart Team will be contacting schools to schedule this initial visit.

Selection of a school’s solar contractor (installer) will be done by the University of Central Florida through a formal bid process. This bid process will begin in the next few weeks. Therefore, schools will be notified in mid-June as to who the solar contractor is.

Requirements

In short, to be eligible to apply for this program, a school must be a:

• Public school/college in Florida; and
• A state designated EHPA shelter (not just a general hurricane shelter).

To find out whether a school is an EHPA shelter, please consult our list of Florida public schools that are EHPA shelters [MS Excel, 125kB].

Each county Emergency Manager (working with School District Engineers) determines which schools will be designated shelters. Determination of the School as an EHPA shelter happens when the school is constructed or at time of renovation (including upgrading of the shelter part of the school). Once construction is complete, the facility is reviewed by State Emergency Management personnel for program compliance and placed on the State EHPA list. If the school you were looking for is not on that list, but you believe it is an EHPA shelter, please contact your county's emergency management office (see the list below).

• List of county emergency managers. [Adobe Acrobat PDF, 1.32mb]
  

Array Mounting Requirements

Schools should be aware that FSEC prefers to mount the photovoltaic array as a freestanding structure placed on the ground (ground-mount) usually near a building. This type of installation requires 2000 sq-ft of unobstructed (horizon to horizon) ground space. If a school is selected and a ground-mount installation is not possible, accommodation of other configurations may be possible under unique circumstances.

It is important to note that regardless of mounting (this includes roof-mount), the battery system will be in an outdoor enclosure, which requires some pad-mounted equipment on the ground. In addition, interior wall-space should be reserved (near the battery and array pads) for the installation of power control equipment (such as the inverter and electrical disconnects).