Plenty of schools all over the country are adding solar to their roofs. But not many dive as deeply into the technology as the San Ramon Unified School District in San Jose, Calif., did.

The district just flipped the switch on 3.3 megawatts of solar power that’s providing more than three quarters of the energy needed at five schools.

It’s a massive SunPower solar project.

“We think it’s quite an accomplishment,” said Terry Koehne, a director with the school district. “We’re really excited about it.”

Koehne said the district started working on the project more than a year and a half ago when it realized it had Federal stimulus money it could spend.

A lot of California schools used the funds to build new schools or make updates and improvements on old ones. With San Ramon being mostly stable with plenty of schoolhouses in good condition, it opted to spend its money on solar.

“The money we spent is going to come back to us and then some,” Koehne said.

The district borrowed funds to pay for the full solar installation. Those borrowed funds will be paid off within 16 years, using money entirely from energy savings.

“So we’re not going to touch our general fund to pay that off,” Koehne said.

In fact, Koehne estimates that the solar installations will generate about $20 million in extra revenue for the district over and beyond the repayment of the loan throughout its 25-year life.

Koehne said that solar panel manufacturer SunPower provided a 95 percent guarantee for the panels, so that if they slip below performance estimations, SunPower will pay the difference between what was expected and the amount of power actually generated.

“With that guarantee, it was really a no-brainer for us,” Koehne said.

He said the project is brilliant on several fronts.

“It allows us to integrate alternative energy solutions,” he said, “and expose students to that. It also provides us with a coveted revenue stream during a really, really tough financial time.”

Image courtesy of the San Ramon Unified School District.