York Castle eyes full solar switch

York Castle High School in Brown’s Town, St Ann, is preparing to cut ties with the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) and run fully on solar power within weeks, with help from its alumni association.

Principal Raymon Treasure said the school had been partly powered by solar before Hurricane Melissa destroyed about 35 panels, leaving the system down. The school completed its phased reopening on Monday, November 24, but several classroom blocks remain without electricity as JPS has yet to restore service. The company has said it expects to return power to 75 percent of St Ann customers by December 10.

Treasure explained that the previous solar setup was grid-tied to reduce electricity costs. The new plan is to go off-grid.

For now, the school is relying on two generators – one for the administrative block and one for the cafeteria – leaving the computer lab and TVET classrooms without power.

“Fuel costs us $5,000 per day to run one generator, so we’re spending $10,000 per day on fuel for the two,” Treasure told The Gleaner.

Plans for a third generator were shelved, as it would still leave most of the campus without electricity while pushing daily fuel costs to $15,000. “We couldn’t afford that long term. That’s why we are pushing to upgrade our solar system. Along with the alumni association, we are looking at buying additional panels and an inverter. We don’t need a big battery because we don’t operate at night; the sun could sustain us in the day,” Treasure said.

He added that the move is urgent. “We’re hoping that in the next two to three weeks we would probably have that in place.”

York Castle is one of several Brown’s Town schools battered by the hurricane, which damaged buildings and cut electricity.

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