Sonia Ahmed photo
Mayor Elicker, city climate director Steve Winter, Greenskies Vice President Ryan Linares, and Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow on Tuesday.
Thomas Breen file photo
Solar canopies outside of Albertus Magnus in 2023.
Two new solar panel parking canopies containing nearly 1,000 solar panels in total will be installed in the parking lots of L.W. Beecher Museum Magnet School and Hill Central School this summer.
Mayor Justin Elicker, city climate czar Steve Winter, and other city and school district officials made that announcement at a Tuesday morning press conference held outside of Beecher School at 100 Jewel St.
They said that, starting on Wednesday, the new solar panel parking canopies will go up in the lots outside of the Beaver Hills and Hill schools. A press release sent out in advance of Tuesday’s conference stated that the two canopies will contain an estimated 959 solar panels and generate an estimated 645,325 kilowatt-hours of power in their first year of operation.
The parking-lot solar panels are part project the city is undertaking with Greenskies, a clean energy company.
As part of a non-financial agreement first approved by the Board of Education in October 2023, Greenskies will finance, design, install, and maintain canopies that double as solar panels and provide shade to cars parked under them. The company will then sell electricity produced by the parking lot solar arrays at each school to the city at a fixed rate for the full term of the power purchase agreement, which will span 20 years.
The agreement is non-financial because the cost of the installation will be paid for over time with the dollars that come in from the sale of electricity to the city, New Haven Public Schools spokesperson Justin Harmon said at the time of the agreement approval.
The solar panels will be installed in the parking lots of Beecher and Hill Central, and the project is set to be completed over the summer, before the school year begins in the fall.
According to Elicker, the solar parking canopies will offset 35 percent of power used by the schools, which is equivalent to 1.1 million miles of driving a gasoline-powered vehicle.
Elicker also said the project will save the schools money, with an estimated $27,000 in savings the first year and $1.25 million over the course of the 20-year agreement.
Winter, the city’s climate & sustainability director, noted that there are some solar panel parking canopies in New Haven already, but they’re at universities like Southern Connecticut State University and Albertus Magnus College. This project will be the first time that solar panels are installed at New Haven Public Schools properties.
“We really want to help people reduce their energy bills and keep that money in their pocket,” Winter said, urging renters and homeowners to visit newhavenct.gov/energy for help with energy efficiency.
Greenskies Vice President Ryan Linares and Westville/Amity Alder and Majority Leader Richard Furlow were also in attendance.
Linares said that this project is one of more than ten that Greenskies has undertaken with the city to increase sustainable energy use.
Furlow said that with the rising prices of oil, it’s important to look at alternative means of energy.
“It’s my hope that these alternative means will become our natural means,” he said.
Elicker also highlighted other ongoing sustainability projects the city is working on, including a geothermal project at Union Station. He mentioned the fleet of 50 electric vehicles the city has, which he said is more than the state has. Elicker and City Engineer Giovanni Zinn arrived at the conference in these electrical vehicles, and joked that they should’ve carpooled together.
Winter, meanwhile, arrived at the press conference on his e‑bike.