SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) has created a new foundation which is aimed at helping schools shift toward solar power. Cutting electric bills by using the power of the sun could really help our nation’s education, which is being squeezed for dollars more and more every day. This particular venture, however, is aimed at developing countries where there is no power for schools. This is certainly good PR for SolarCity, and the company even gets a nice tax break too for all its charitable donations.
SolarCity creates the Give Power Foundation
The name of the new organization is the Give Power Foundation, and it will give a free solar installation to an elementary school for every 1 megawatt of solar power SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) installs in 2014. The installation will come with a component to store energy. According to Forbes contributor Heather Clancy, this storage component isn’t related to the deal SolarCity has with Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), which will provide batteries for SolarCity’s systems.
To complete this initiative, SolarCity is joining with the youth organization buildOn to do the solar installations. They will be built in some of the most remote parts of the world where schools do not have electricity, including in Nepal, Mali, Malawi and Haiti.
Other efforts for solar-powered schoolrooms
Clancy noted that SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) isn’t the only company making strides to take solar power to schools. Sprout Space, a solar-powered modular classroom created by the architectural firm Perkins + Will, is meant to be net-zero. In other words, it is designed to create the amount of energy it needs in order to operate. The module uses shades, collectors for rain water, efficient heating and cooling units and solar panels.
The firm has installed one of its Sprout Space modules at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. About 16 of the modules apparently produce the same amount of energy as a four-kilowatt power plant.
