Mangilao school turning to solar power

 by Jolene Toves

Guam - In the central village of Mangilao Pacific Islands University is hoping to turn the sun's rays into power for the school.     

It is no secret that investing in the sun's rays can help reduce the monthly power bill and recognizing this Dave Owen is making the effort to have solar panels installed on the school grounds. "Our school is all about making higher education accessible financially to our students so we are always looking for ways that we can lower our expenditures and pass that on to our students," he said.

According to Owen the monthly power bill at the university averages between $6,000-$7,000 a month making utilities the second most significant expense that must be paid and they want to try to eliminate. He says the university has seen the service provided by Pacific Solar Photovoltaics as the solar company has already installed solar panels in their sister school in Chuuk. He said, "This is something that we have already been doing in Chuuk Pacific Solar has been instrumental in getting panels in our facility in Phi, Chuuk so we already knew what Pacific Solar could do with solar that's in a place where there is no power so they are running solar panels off batteries."

To start off the school intends to have solar panels installed in areas they have identified as high power consuming buildings. "We would like to cover the entire cost but we are limited with our finances so our plan is to cover about half of the cost we have one half of our campus has classrooms female dorms and administration the other half is male dorms and library and shop and so we want to start covering we have a concrete building on the library side," he said.

He says they are looking covering $3,500 of their power bill and hope to do this by purchasing the solar panels by using a power purchasing agreement. "We worked with Pacific Solar people and they suggested to us that we find investors who are willing to invest in a solar panel system for our school which is a non-profit and so with the assistance of one of our board member is John Robertson of AM Orient and the Guam Contractors Association and he has been working with us to try raise some investors," he said.

If you would like more information on how you can invest in solar contact Pacific Solar Photovoltaics at 632-4002.