An Insider’s Take on Why Roanoke Decided to Build More Solar Energy than any K-12 System in Virginia

Jeff Shawver is Senior Director of School Plants at Roanoke City Public Schools in southwestern Virginia. That means he’s in charge of construction projects, along with maintaining existing buildings and making them run efficiently. And that includes energy.

Recently, he appeared in this story from a local video journal called The Current about Roanoke Schools building the biggest solar power system at any K-12 school system in Virginia:

Because the video told the story so well, and because Jeff wanted other schools to know that they could save significant money by going solar the same way that Roanoke is doing, he sent this message to a couple dozen of his friends at other schools and in local governments around Virginia:

Dear Renewable Energy Supporters,

I wanted to share a recent media highlight that explains how a solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) works and why it is such a valuable mechanism for expanding renewable energy.

A solar PPA allows organizations to adopt solar energy without any upfront capital investment. The model also supports roof improvements where needed and ensures the long-term maintenance of the solar system. This creates a sustainable path forward for institutions that want the benefits of renewable energy while remaining fiscally responsible.

The intent of this story is not to focus on any single partnership, but rather to illustrate how the PPA structure can serve as a replicable solution for schools, municipalities, and nonprofits in Virginia.

Watch the story here

I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch and consider how this approach could be applied in your own community or organization. Together, we can accelerate the adoption of renewable energy in ways that make sense for both budgets and the environment.

When you appear in a news story, it’s nice to share it with colleagues. But Jeff took the extra step of summarizing the benefits of going solar on campus, and doing it through a power purchase agreement, because he was convinced, by his own experience, that it’s one of the best ways for schools to save real money.

Jeff’s Solar Backstory

Roanoke Schools are committed to sustainability goals, student learning, and increasing the resilience of their physical plant, all good reasons to adopt clean energy on campus where the solar system can become part of the curriculum in science classes and workforce development training. And, as for schools everywhere, budget stewardship was a key consideration.

The electric bill is always one of the top budget items at a school system and recent increases to electric rates made the schools’ electric bill even bigger.

From the superintendent on down, the people at Roanoke Schools know that money spent on energy is money taken away from paying teachers, aides, and bus drivers. High electric bills also take money away from sourcing new technology for instruction, whether computers in classrooms or machinery in job training programs or measuring and testing devices in science labs.

And as the person who manages the electric bills, Jeff knows that if schools can spend less money on energy they can invest more in students.

That’s why he has been on a mission to cut energy costs for the buildings under his management. Over the last few years, he’s tried a variety of solutions to increase energy efficiency and conserve power. But when he found an approach that delivered bigger savings — and with no upfront cost — he wanted more of it.

And then he wanted to share it with his colleagues. If they knew what Jeff knew, why wouldn’t they want to do the same thing?

“We Don’t Have Any Budget for Solar”

Jeff wanted his colleagues at other schools to know that they don’t need any line item in their budget to start with solar, if they do it like he did — and like most schools do these days. That is, not by buying their own solar panels but instead by getting them from a solar company like ours through a power purchase agreement.

Because there’s no equipment cost in this type of service agreement and thus, no upfront capital cost, eight out of ten schools in America that get solar on campus do so through a PPA, according to Generation 180.

These schools don’t have to find money in their budget to buy their own solar panels. Instead, they make a deal with a solar developer to install a solar energy system on campus, to sell all the power to the schools at a rate lower than the local utility, and then to run the system on the school’s behalf for 20 or 25 years. After that, the schools can take ownership of the solar panels at a nominal cost and enjoy another decade or more of very low-cost clean power made on their own rooftops.

Will More Solar Really Save More Money?

RCPS started in 2024 by installing 1.4 megawatts of solar at six locations, mostly school campuses but also an administration building. When Jeff saw that everything worked well and that Roanoke Schools were saving money, he was pleased. But when it turned out in the meantime that utility rates had gone up, Jeff noticed that the schools were saving even more money than he’d expected. That got his attention.

That’s when Jeff contacted us by getting more solar in more locations. If a little solar saved money, then he figured that more solar might save more money.

It turned out that Jeff was right, and we were happy to oblige — but only after performing a careful analysis of Roanoke Schools’ power usage history and their prospects for the future.

While some companies will try to fit as many solar panels as possible onto as many rooftops as available because they get paid by the number of solar panels they install, our company takes a more holistic approach. Since we usually provide solar through a long-term agreement, our incentives are aligned with those of the customer. That is, we want customers to save as much money as possible. To get the biggest bang for the buck, we install just enough equipment to offer the most economic value. If that means fewer solar panels per roof, or fewer locations with solar, then so be it.

Along with no upfront cost, aligned incentives between solar developer and customer is another advantage for schools of getting solar through a PPA instead of buying their own equipment. Schools can save much more money with a PPA, as Jeff knew.

Not One, Not Two, but Three Rounds of Solar Projects

In 2025, we are now helping Roanoke Schools install a second round of 5.7 more megawatts of solar panels at 11 additional locations. This time, as part of the process, some of those buildings even got their roofs restored (with a 25-year warranty provided by the roofing contractor), at a cost worked into the PPA.

Even after this second group of projects, it turned out that Roanoke Schools had more places that would be ideal for solar. So, right now RCPS is planning a third phase of solar projects that will add yet another 2.8 megawatts at 15 more locations. They want to squeeze out all the money savings they can get — all while doing their part for sustainability to generate even more clean energy.

Once it’s all done in 2026, Roanoke Schools will boast the largest solar power system at any school division in the state of Virginia, a total of 10.1 megawatts of solar capacity across 32 locations — at a projected budget savings of $60.2 million over 35 years.

When you find a way to save that much money, the news media tends to notice. So far, along with the video from The Current above, more than half a dozen stories have come out about Roanoke Schools going solar in such a big way.

If that helps spread the word so that schools in other places can save as much money as the schools are on track to save in Roanoke, then Jeff welcomes the attention. With federal cuts, school budgets are more uncertain than ever. Jeff wants every school to have the information he did, so they can investigate whether solar might offer much needed budget relief.