Coppell Independent School District is a public school district just north-west of Dallas in Coppell, TX. The district has 16 campuses and serves portions of Coppell, Grapevine, Irving, Valley Ranch, Dallas, and Lewisville, TX. Coppell ISD is home to the state’s first LEED Gold, net-zero elementary school, Richard J. Lee Elementary School. The school is able to sustain itself by producing as much energy as it consumes from the wind and solar energy generation occurring on site.
Benefits of Solar and Sustainable Features for Education
Conservation and sustainability are a central focus of the school. The facility is equipped with several sustainable education tools: digital interactive informational displays of the building’s energy use and renewable energy generation; an outdoor lab; a wind and solar panel learning station; rainwater harvesting and native gardening; and a campus wide recycling program. The solar arrays can be monitored by interactive dashboards that are available to the students. This allows the students immediately know the impact they’ve had on the environment with their school. Students are engaged utilizing the facility’s sustainable features as a teaching tool. It creates ownership and encourages a deeper understanding of their contribution and impact on the world. Additionally, the onsite energy generation is helping to minimize building maintenance and operations costs by harvesting on site energy which lowers utility costs.
Funding
Coppell ISD received $21 million from a $79.5 million district bond to construct the net-zero elementary school and an additional grant from Oncor Electric for the installation of the solar array. Adding the solar technology is what made Richard J. Lee Elementary school eligible for net-zero status.
