Solar energy systems installed on public schools have a number of benefits that include utility bill savings, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and other toxic air contaminants, job creation, demonstrating environmental leadership, and creating learning opportunities for students. In the 2011 economic environment, the ability to generate general-fund savings as a result of reducing utility bills has become a primary motivator for school districts trying to cut costs. To achieve meaningful savings, the size of the photovoltaic (PV) systems installed (both individually on any one...

Previous work quantifying the non-hardware balance-of-system costs-or soft costs-associated with building a residential or commercial photovoltaic (PV) system has left a significant portion unsegmented in an "other soft costs" category. This report attempts to better quantify the "other soft costs" by focusing on the financing, overhead, and profit of residential and commercial PV installations for a specific business model. There are many different business models in the PV marketplace, with varying cost structures; however, a common model was chosen to gain better insight of typical costs...

By the third quarter of 2012, the United States had deployed more than 2.1 gigawatts (GWac) of utility-scale solar generation capacity, with 4.6 GWac under construction as of August 2012 (SEIA 2012). Continued growth is anticipated owing to state renewable portfolio standards and decreasing system costs (DOE 2012a). One concern regarding large-scale deployment of solar energy is its potentially significant land use. Efforts have been made to understand solar land use estimates from the literature (Horner and Clark 2013); however, we were unable to find a comprehensive evaluation of solar land...