Woodside Priory taps into solar power

Now, with the recent installation of four groups of solar panels across the campus, the priory's electrical use will be integrated with the most powerful energy source in the solar system.

After 15 months of discussion and installation, 678 solar panels coat the roofs of three buildings and one open hillside on the 50-year-old priory's campus. Tim Molak, the head of the school, said he hopes to "flip the switches" that will turn on the panels when the students return to school this week from Thanksgiving break.

"Everybody that's had solar in a residential area has been happy with it, and I think we will be too," Molak said.

The 131.5-kilowatt system will offset about 50 percent of the school's total electrical usage, Molak said. Hovey Clark, an art and science teacher who also moderates the priory's Sustainability Club, said the panels offer a unique educational experience for the 350 students at the school, as well as for the surrounding community.

"As a school, we have a real responsibility to work not just with our own students but to be a role model to the community for environmental education and sustainability education," Clark said. "It's a real reminder to us that we work in a real natural setting here and we should do everything we can to be a good steward to

Indeed, Woodside Priory's solar system is just one of many eco-friendly steps the school has taken. Clark's students have created brush piles in the open fields of the campus, which saves money in hauling costs and provides songbirds and other small animals protection from predators. The school also has recycling and composting programs, and two waterless urinals in the men's bathroom save up to 600 gallons of water per year.

Brother Edward, a monk who has been at the priory for 21 years, said stewardship to the earth is an important Benedictine principle that is practiced in the school and monastery at Woodside Priory. He said the solar panels provide an important lesson about the "obligation to preserve (the earth) for the next generation."

SolarCity, a Foster City-based company, finished installing the panels at the end of October. The priory will be paying off the $1.1 million project over the next 15 years through a power-purchase agreement. Lynden Rive, chief executive of SolarCity, said that shortly after starting the business two and a half years ago, he realized that the "biggest barrier to adoption is the up-front cost."

Aiming to cross that barrier, Rive began offering alternative payment methods in May. He said SolarCity allows nonprofit organizations, churches, and schools to pay for their systems with the power-purchase agreements, while residential clients can use a leasing program to pay for their panels.

"People want to do the right thing; they just can't afford the solar system. Now they can do the right thing and they can afford it and they save money," said Rive, adding that business has increased 300 percent since the introduction of the new payment program.

"Solar is the one application that you can apply almost anywhere," Rive said. "Unlike wind or geothermal that rely on site-specific conditions, this you can do anywhere. The sun shines everywhere."