The Worthington City School District is going green this month as it prepares to fire up 65 kilowatts of solar energy at Evening Street Elementary School and plans for the possibility of 300 solar panels at Worthingway Middle School.

A contract with SolarVision guarantees the school district will pay 15 percent less for energy than what it would normally spend, said Tim Gehring, district facilities manager.

"Panels have been installed on the roof at Evening Street and we're getting ready to fire them up soon," Gehring said Tuesday, Feb. 2. "We're meeting with SolarVision this afternoon and will talk about making it an event."

Under the contract, the district buys energy directly from SolarVision.

"We are buying whatever energy the solar panels produce, but at a guaranteed cost of 15 percent less, so that regardless of how much is produced, we will have a savings and we will be helping the environment," Gehring said.

The district will consider solar panel contracts for each school one at a time, he said.

"The preliminary engineering has been done at Worthingway Middle School, but no contract has been signed at this time," he said.

The panels at Worthingway could number close to 300, making it the largest middle school in Ohio to add solar energy, according to the SolarVision Web site, solarvisionllc.net.

"Photovoltaic systems make electricity by using semiconductors to convert sunlight into power," according to the site. "SolarVision's PV systems are tied into the electric grid through special inverters. By tying into the grid, the system allows schools and municipalities to use more affordable, cleaner, solar-generated electricity when the sun is shining -- and to continue receiving energy from the utility's electric grid when the sun is not shining."

SolarVision owners Greg Kuss and Thomas Van Kleef introduced their service to Worthington school board members at a February 2009 board meeting, with the help of former board member and longtime district resident Abe Ottolenghi.

The company will donate a flat-screen television monitor for the Evening Street lobby so live data can be broadcast from the solar panels, Gehring said.

"It is our intent and hope that the data will be used in student lessons in some capacity," he said.

If the program works well at Evening Street, the district will consider other schools, with Worthingway likely next in line, Gehring said.

"We wanted to go through the program at Evening Street and see how it works out," he said. "We were pleased that we were able to get the panels installed without having to do any modifications to the building to accommodate the panels."

Gehring said the contract "basically leases our roof to SolarVision and they in turn provide energy at a reduced cost.

"SolarVision will be owners of the solar panels and we will have nothing to do with the maintenance, because we are only hosts of their equipment," he said.

The district already has solar panels installed at Bluffsview and Wilson Hill elementary schools and at Worthingway Middle School, but they are 2-kilowatt photovoltaic systems, used only for solar educational purposes.

Gehring said SolarVision soon will announce an event to mark the "firing up" of the solar panels.

"We are excited about seeing where this project will take us," he said.