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TCTC decides against being part of solar project
By Ed Runyan
CHAMPION
The Trumbull Career & Technical Center board of directors has decided against participating in a proposed $8 million Solar Planet project.
The project would have resulted in Solar Planet, a Columbus company, installing solar-collection panels on 10 acres of a 30-acre plot of farmland on the south side of the school property near the state Route 5 Bypass.
The school would not have paid for the equipment but would have paid Solar Planet for most of its electricity under a 25-year agreement.
The panels would have generated most of the power the school uses, according to Solar Planet.
The board decided last week that the proposal contained too many unknowns and only a small amount of savings in electricity cost.
Wayne McClain, TCTC superintendent, said Monday the board and administration felt the school could not commit to the project because the school would be obligated to appropriate the amount that it would cost to buy out the facility, in the event that the school wanted out of the contract.
In the first year of the deal, that would have been $17 million. In 25th year, it would have been $1.3 million.
“We are probably as healthy [financially] as any district around, but we don’t have that kind of money,” McClain said.
Furthermore, the contract contained no guarantee that the price of the electricity would remain competitive compared with the school’s contract with the Ohio Schools Council collaborative, McClain said.
Roger Samuelson, a Champion Schools board member and TCTC board member, said one reason he was concerned about the project was the rapid change in technology.
“We could be stuck with something obsolete in no time,” Samuelson said. “My gosh, in 25 years, who knows? We could not make the jump.”
Kevin Coughlin, chairman of Lexington Companies of Akron, a consultant working for Solar Planet, said the company does not believe it’s necessary to take out a bond or otherwise come up with the funds to cover the cost of buying the equipment.
“It’s Solar Planet’s position that some lawyers get it, some don’t,” Coughlin said of the attorneys advising potential Solar Planet clients.
Coughlin said most aspects of solar technology have changed “at a snail’s pace” in recent years and are likely to continue at that pace.