The bus parking lot – According to a study done by Chevron, the bus parking lot has a solar access rating of 99%, which is equal to the HIGHEST rating of any location at any school in the study!
Ice Plant Slope and West Blacktop
A combination of Bus-Lot, Ice-Plant, West Blacktop and West Field
The Roof of main building or adjacent buildings on site
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to weigh-in on the discussion. I am an HB resident too. I love historic buildings. Dwyer is no exception, it’s fantastic.
I have recently completed a Solar Panel installation class at OCC. It was unbelieveably informative. From what I have learned from the class about the importance of placement of solar arrays, there is a problem with each of the alternate locations in the above pictures. Most of the above alternatives have shading problems in either the morning or evening. In the iceplant-combo picture, you can already see the shade entering the area. The roofs are out because the panels are less efficient so close the the roof – roofs get extremely hot on warm days and heat makes the panels less effective. They would have to be placed high off the roof to allow enough airflow to cool the panels. That might be less desireable visually.
The selected spot is the ideal location to maximize “Peak Sun Hours”. This means the energy collected which means the most value will be gained each day from the initial investment and for a long time to come.
I also often wish that the symbols of our heritage could last forever. But that is unrealistic. Perhaps a graceful marriage and acceptance of the old and the new together is not as bad as it now seems. When my sons attended Dwyer I wished they had more shade to offer during recesses. Fair skin damages quickly.
Also, SCE is planning a 10% price increase by January 2012 (never mind that part of that increase is to replenish the SCE retirement coffers that have dwindled in that last couple of years – maybe we should be rallying around the fact that we will be paying higher electricty costs to compensate for the market losses of SCE retirement investments). No one is replacing my 401k losses.
Once the panels are in, there will be no more electricity price increases for 25+ years for Dwyer. I like the community involvement but there are bigger issues than aesthetics and a longing for the past.
James Sutton
James,
Thanks for your insight and you’re opinion. I do want to clarify that according to what we’ve heard from the District, the bus parking lot had 99% sun exposure when studied, which is at least as high or higher than the current on field location. The shading you see is also partly due to the clouds that were overhead. These photos were taken right at the end of the rainstorm before Christmas.
Aso another part of the problem is that the District did not effectively present these plans to the community prior to making the decisions. If you go to the district site, there is no mention of the project until this whole thing blew up and they added an “update” PDF in December 2010. There weren’t press releases, information in the paper, no surveys, no calls using their automated phone system, no information in the email newsletters, not the greatest effort by the District to raise awareness of this decision!
Also when building in the immediate surroundings of a historic structure, CEQA law dictates that an Environmental Impact Report is filed with the State Clearinghouse, or the Orange County Clerk, and at a minimim an “Negative Declaration” document should have been filed. We have been unable to locate these documents. So part of the issue isn’t just the actual location these panels will be in, part of our problem is the fact that the decisions were made where these panels would go at the time of signing the contract with Chevron.
We have also believe that the District had only one bidder on this project, another problem im our opinion.