By JUSTIN STORY, The Daily News, jstory@bgdailynews.com/783-3256
Monday, February 8th, the district accepted a $2.395 million bid from electrical contractor AES to install solar panels on the new Richardsville Elementary School building.
The solar panel project was actually rebid a year after the board originally considered bids for construction on the new school.
“When we bid the building package, we bid the solar panels at that time ... that was about a year ago and at that time the board decided not to commit to that bid,” said Kenny Stanfield, architect with Sherman Carter Barnhart of Louisville, which is designing multiple construction and renovation projects for the district.
The district had decided to rebid the project on the chance that prices may come in lower, and the chance proved worth taking - the low bid approved Monday was about $500,000 less than what the board considered a year ago, according to Stanfield.
Construction has begun on the new RES near the school’s current site, and the new elementary school is scheduled to open for the 2010-11 school year.
“We needed to go ahead and build the panels at this time to give us pretty good lead time,” Stanfield said. “We want the panels to be installed and operational when the school opens.”
Solar panels are a key element in the construction of new elementary schools at Richardsville and Bristow, which have been designed to be net-zero in terms of electrical usage.
A net-zero school is designed and operated so that it supplies as much electricity as it draws from the grid over the course of a year.
