North Carolina Schools Could Generate Significant Solar Power, Report Finds Untapped Potential
A new analysis by Environment North Carolina Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group indicates that North Carolina's public school rooftops possess the potential to generate enough solar energy to meet the annual electricity needs of nearly 150,000 homes. The report estimates that approximately 2,400 public schools, representing about 90% of those analyzed statewide, have suitable rooftop space for solar panel installations. If fully developed, this capacity could support over 900 megawatts of solar power, producing around 1.6 terawatt-hours of electricity in the first year, which accounts for about 1.2% of North Carolina's current annual electricity consumption. Wake County leads the state with an estimated 75 megawatts of potential rooftop solar capacity across its 204 public and charter schools, enough to power roughly 12,200 typical U.S. homes. The analysis also suggests that widespread school solar adoption could avoid approximately 1.3 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually from power ... 
