Building Power Resource Center, Climate & Community Institute, Center for Public Enterprise

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This memo reviews three ownership models available to school districts across the country: private ownership managed through power purchase agreements with third-party developers, direct school ownership, and green bank or state finance authority ownership. Every district has different conditions to consider, and this memo provides a preliminary guide and recommendations on the three most-used options for financing solar on schools. This memo recommends that, thanks to new investments and funding mechanisms from the Inflation Reduction Act, school districts should look beyond the status quo of power purchase agreements in which they continue to pay a third party private energy provider for their electricity, and instead embrace the benefits and incentives of the Inflation Reduction Act to either directly own their school solar system or collaborate with state finance institutions to scale public financing and public ownership of school solar systems across the district.