Manteca and East Union high schools could become the first public schools in San Joaquin County to have chargers for private electric vehicles.

The Manteca Unified board is expected to move forward with projects at three sites in a bid to become less dependent on PG&E and to stabilize electricity costs when they meet Monday at 6 p.m. at the district office.

The East Union project involves four dual chargers and two single chargers in the student parking lot.

There will also be four roof-mounted solar arrays with two of them going on the new two-story classroom building.

Manteca High will have three dual chargers and a pair of single chargers in the student parking lot. There will also be a single charger and a double charger in the faculty parking lot.

The campus also will have roof mounted solar arrays including on the new two-story classroom building now under construction along Sherman Avenue.

Both high school projects include other items such as new meters and infrastructure support.

MUSD is also creating the ability to charge E-buses complete with on-site power generation.

All three locations already have solar panels.

The study the district commissioned in October 2024 was to determine the extent of energy savings that could be financed by diverting money currently going to PG&E as well as avoiding future rate hikes that would cover the yearly payments for the improvements.

It is similar to how the district financed solar power systems in 2013.

The 2013 decision to go solar at 26 elementary schools and five high schools froze kilowatt usage at that time at $1.9 million annually.

And while those savings continue, increased enrollment coupled with rising prices saw PG&E costs borne by Manteca Unified soar by $1.4 million in the 2022-2023 school year or enough to cover the annual pay and benefits for 21.5 entry level teachers.

That exceeded the budgeted amount of $3.5 million for 2022-2023 school.

The $1.9 million annual cost for systems already in place has been constant for the past 10 years.

And when that $1.9 million that is repaying the cost of borrowing to install solar is paid off in just over 10 years, it will free up that money.

Some of it will be plowed back into the micro invertor solar panel systems in place as they lose their effectiveness over time. The district intends to make upgrades on a staggered basis to keep those costs below $1.9 million each year.

The Manteca work will cost $6.3 million, the Manteca work $6.2 million and the district work $4.2 million.

In addition, Brock Elliott and Joshua Cowell will be among the first California schools to have on-campus battery storage units such as those manufactured at the Tesla plant in Lathrop.

It’s because Measure A bond projects at the two schools must include solar and a battery storage system under recently adopted California green energy rules for public education facilities.

Both campuses are getting new multipurpose rooms with solar energy panels.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com