• According to a study published in a peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research Letters, solar photovoltaic (PV) could be leveraged as a mitigation strategy for the US education sector.
• The study revealed that taking advantage of all viable space for solar panels could allow schools to meet up to 75% of their electricity needs and reduce the education sector’s carbon footprint by as much as 28%.
• The study also suggested that solar panels could help schools unplug from grids fed by natural gas and coal power plants that produce particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides – air pollutants that can contribute to smog and acid rain as well as serious health consequences including heart attacks and reduced lung function.
• According to the study, educational institutions account for 11% of total US building electricity consumption and 14% of building floor space.
• These buildings also contribute to approximately 4% of total US CO2 emissions, thus playing a potentially important role in climate mitigation strategies.
• The research studied the electricity use for 132,000 educational institutions across the US and the electricity generation, greenhouse gas and health-damaging air emissions reductions, and private and social costs and benefits that would result from adopting rooftop solar PV.
• Furthermore, it found that solar PV in US educational institutions could provide 100 TWh of electricity services annually, meeting 75% of these buildings' current electricity consumption.
• The provision of electricity services from rooftop solar PV on educational institutions could reduce health, environmental, and climate change damages.
• The effect of the reduction is valued at roughly $4 billion per year (assuming a social cost of carbon of $40/ton and value of statistical life of $10M in 2018 USD).
• In conclusion, the study found that;
• The private costs of solar for educational institutions still exceed the private benefits from reduced electricity consumption across the entire country (unless a third party operation model is used, in which case some locations can have net-benefits)
• Also, with the exceptions of California and New York, the social health, environmental, and climate change benefits exceed the levels of current incentives provided by the state and retail subsidies.
• The authors are Nichole L Hanus, Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, Parth T Vaishnav, Naїm R Darghouth, and Inês L Azevedo.

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