Helping deploy efficient energy expenditures to improve learning environments

American education facilities spend significant dollars on energy each year – in some cases these costs outweigh investments in textbooks and computers combined. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that primary and secondary schools spend $6 billion annually, and colleges and universities outlay $2 billion. Rising energy costs and tight budgets require administrators and facility managers to choose between deferring maintenance and upgrades on aging, inefficient energy systems or cutting academic programs and staff.

By identifying opportunities for energy conservation and generation projects, educational facilities can materially reduce energy operating expenses and free up resources to hire new staff, enrich the student body, or make other investments that will lead to more positive learning, teaching, and research environments.

For more than three decades, OpTerra has successfully designed and implemented comprehensive energy service solutions for public and private K-12 schools and higher education institutions – on both an individual building and campus-wide basis. Our process begins with identifying the current energy-related expense, designing solutions that reduce that expense, and showing school administrators and campus managers how to use the achieved savings to finance the investment. Additional benefits include increased student, faculty, and staff comfort and productivity, and decreased carbon footprint.

We identify financing options and investment incentives to help our education customers achieve the best possible economic return with little or no upfront investment. We have a proven track record of securing project financing structures that are most appropriate for public and private schools and institutions, including:

• Bank loans
• Tax-exempt bonds and leases
• Utility incentives and on-bill loans
• Federal, state and local investment incentives and grants
• Power purchase agreements