Philly schools are overheating: How solar could save schools

By Angie Bacha (Green Philly) and Elizabeth Miller (Climate Central)

This is the second story in a two-part series examining climate change and Philadelphia schools. It was produced through a collaboration between Green Philly and Climate Central. Link to the first part of the series.

Akira Drake Rodriguez, a University of Pennsylvania professor who has studied inequities in housing and schools, has repeatedly visited a school in west Philadelphia to install weather sensors. Kids there were hot and frustrated, squeezed into overcrowded classrooms, and unable even to get a drink of water because school water fountains didn’t work.

“Every time I walked through that school, whether it was June or October, the kids were like, ‘It’s so f-ing hot in here,’” she said.

Dozens of schools in Pennsylvania are looking at adding renewable energy, and proponents say the move could help address some of the bigger maintenance challenges those schools face, while providing power for new air conditioning systems needed as atmospheric pollution drives up temperatures. Many are focused on solar, including the school district serving Philadelphia, the state’s largest, though those projects are in early stages.

So far, the Philadelphia Energy Authority has analyzed the potential for installing solar panels on more than a dozen schools in the district, taking into account important factors such as roof space and location, says Maryrose Myrtetus, executive director of the Philadelphia Green Capital Corp. The Philadelphia Green Capital Corp is working with the Philadelphia Energy Authority (PEA) on accelerating clean energy in the city.

The Solar for Schools Act, which Pennsylvania lawmakers passed in July 2024, created a $25 million grant program to support solar projects at public K-12 schools, community colleges, and technical schools. The grant will cover up to half the project cost and was designed to be stacked with other federal funds to ease the upfront costs particularly for historically disadvantaged schools.

The Solar for Schools program could help a district where many schools are in need of capital improvement, Myrtetus said. Schools could see tens of thousands of dollars in energy cost savings, depending on the project and the size of the school. That money could then be spent on maintenance.

Through provisions created by the Inflation Reduction Act, the financial barriers to accessing solar dropped to what might have been the lowest ever. Schools were eligible for reimbursements of up to 30% of the costs of installing renewable energy systems like solar arrays. When combined with other federal programs — the Investment Tax Credit and the Low Income Communities Bonus Program — PEA estimates that some Philadelphia schools could offset up to 90% of the upfront costs of going solar. Now, their future and those of other Inflation Reduction Act benefits is uncertain in the hands of a Republican-led Congress.

An outreach effort orchestrated by Rep. Elizabeth Fielder, D-Philadelphia, built awareness of the state grant program. But rising energy prices may be the primary motivation for its popularity.

Since schools have no way of generating substantial additional revenue to meet swelling operating costs, “solar is really about saving money for schools,” said Liz Robinson, executive director of Philadelphia Solar Energy Association, an organization advocating for more solar energy in Pennsylvania.

The association ran webinars on the incentives and payment options, which saw about 350 participants, Robinson said. The association has also published a free and routinely updated toolkit for schools looking for technical guidance for accessing the state grant program and federal tax benefits that lead to reimbursements for project costs paid directly to schools.

The state grant, which maxes out at $500,000, is “nice,” Robinson said, “but it is not essential for these projects to pencil out. What is most important is the tax credit, and the fact that the tax credit has been converted to direct pay. That’s the big bonanza.”

Legacies of segregation

Many school buildings in Philadelphia face other, more fundamental challenges to providing safe, healthy learning environments for kids before adding solar arrays makes sense.

Public school buildings echo the legacies of segregation and racist housing policies. Low-income communities are often unable to pay for maintaining aging buildings, and many schools in Philly are more than 80 years old. Those buildings were constructed for a different climate and with a set of materials now recognized as problematic. Most lack air conditioning. Some run water through lead pipes. Many have lead paint or plaster. Few have adequate ventilation. The majority contain asbestos.

Philadelphia’s kids have asthma at a rate triple the national average, and mesothelioma, a cancer often linked to asbestos exposure, is frighteningly common among teachers.

After being inspired by a 2020 Philadelphia Inquirer series, “Toxic City: Sick Schools,” Rodriguez co-wrote A Green New Deal for K-12 Public Schools, a $1.4 trillion proposal for healthful and climate-friendly retrofits at schools nationwide.

Robinson said a school’s buildings should be sealed up and insulated against rain, winds and temperature extremes before they’re ready to shift toward renewable energy. Some schools are bundling window or roof replacements with clean energy projects, she said. Others are, or were, before the Trump administration set out to reverse Inflation Reduction Act-related spending, planning to draw on these funding sources in future years.

Based on the number of applications the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development had received even well ahead of the Jan. 31 deadline, Robinson said, the $25 million allocated for this fiscal year will likely be fully spent. Rep. Fielder is expected to seek additional funding for 2026.

The Inflation Reduction Act also created what was supposed to be a five-year grant program for monitoring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants at schools in low-income and historically disadvantaged communities. Poor indoor air quality in schools with mold or without adequate ventilation has been linked to long- and short-term health effects for children, including headaches, allergic reactions, asthma and other respiratory illnesses. The future of that grant program is now also uncertain.

When Rodriguez talks to parents she said she sometimes hears replies like, “‘I don’t have time to think about asbestos and potential asthma attacks. My kid is getting jumped on their way to school.’”

For parents, she said, advocating for something like solar panels is far down the list.

“There’s a thousand problems before someone thinks, ‘Oh, we should have more energy-efficient schools,’” she said, “Until you make those connections of, ‘Hey, the reason your kid is getting jumped in school is because it’s literally 100 degrees inside of the school building.’”