Los Angeles Unified (school district) launches (50 MW) solar energy program

[jpak]

http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-green10-2009feb10,0,2904272.story

When the writer's strike left him idle last year, Jeremy Kromberg decided to give up on the film industry, where he had worked in postproduction, and slide in on the ground floor of the next big thing. That is how the 37-year-old from Hollywood found himself at an adult school on the Eastside on Monday, practicing his technique for fastening solar panels onto rooftops.

"We just do it over and over," he said. "We build them up and tear them down just as fast as we can."

Not that he minds. Kromberg was enthusiastic about the program at the East Los Angeles Skills Center, which will allow him to become a certified solar energy technician. He figures that, with the economy crashing down around him, he will be well placed to take advantage of what promises to be a public spending boom in solar energy, beginning with a $350-million program launched Monday by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In an announcement at the Skills Center, L.A. Unified officials said the district had set a goal of putting enough solar panels on schools and other district buildings to generate 50 megawatts of electricity by 2012. That is enough energy to power as many as 50,000 homes, though the district will use it to light schools and lower its $80-million annual electricity bill.

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