Staunton, VA, Aug. 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Secure Solar Futures has signed an agreement with Pardee Renewable Energy, LLC, a subsidiary of Pardee Resources Company, to provide $15.2 million in equity financing to develop, own and operate 4.6 megawatts of solar power projects to be installed on rooftops of nine locations of public schools in Roanoke, Va. at no upfront cost to the schools through a solar power purchase agreement. Locations include school campuses and the school division’s administrative offices.
Pardee’s investment covers the majority of the projects, whose total size will be 5.7 megawatts at eleven locations, with Secure Solar Futures planning to restore roofs on seven buildings to make them solar ready. The solar photovoltaic systems are scheduled to be installed and placed in service by the end of 2025. The project qualifies for federal investment tax credits and those covered by the company’s investment will be used by Pardee.
“With changes in federal support for clean energy recently passed by Congress and signed by the President, solar projects completed this year may prove to be more affordable than those completed in future years,” said Anthony Smith, PhD, CEO and Founder of Secure Solar Futures. “We are pleased that Pardee, with a long history and broad understanding of varied energy sources, selected the projects at Roanoke Schools for their support.”
Tracing its roots back to 1840 when Ariovistus Pardee started his first coal mining operation in Northeastern Pennsylvania, today Pardee Resources Company owns and manages natural resource and energy assets including coal, timberland, oil, natural gas, alternative energy and agricultural assets. Pardee Resources’ holdings span 15 states and include commercial timberlands, bituminous coal reserves, oil and gas acreage, solar photovoltaic installations, and operating table grape and almond farms.
One of Pardee Resources’ newest areas of focus is the alternative energy sector. Since initiating its efforts in 2010, the company has acquired solar photovoltaic commercial systems in New Jersey, California, Arizona, and now, Virginia.
Pardee has been in the coal business since 1840. Today the Company owns and manages over 300 million tons of high quality thermal and metallurgical reserves, though its current focus is on the metallurgical coal industry markets.
“Since we do so much of our solar work in coalfield regions of West Virginia and Southwestern Virginia, we share Pardee’s philosophy that solar can co-exist with and even complement traditional energy sources,” said Secure Solar Futures’s CEO, Anthony Smith.
$46.5 Million in Savings for Roanoke Schools
Over the next 35 years, the projects supported by Pardee, in combination with an earlier round of 1.6 megawatts of solar projects developed by Secure Solar Futures in 2024, will generate net savings to Roanoke City Public Schools of $46.5 million including avoided utility costs and roof replacement expenses.
To develop the project’s solar arrays, Secure Solar Futures will install 9,766 bifacial (two-sided) photovoltaic modules, which generate power on both sides—directly from sunlight on top and reflected light from the roof below—increasing efficiency by 6% or more compared to traditional solar panels.
The additional value added to the solar projects will help cover the cost of restoring rooftops on buildings to make them solar ready at no capital cost to the schools as part of Secure Solar Futures’s Solar PPA-R³™ offering. As a result, RCPS will avoid more than $14 million in roof replacement costs over the next 35 years, as well as avoided landfill costs of roof replacement.
Along with Pardee and Secure Solar Futures, project teams included GOT Electric and Commonwealth Power as engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) partners, Skyline Roofing for roof restorations, and City National Bank for commercial lending finance.
About Secure Solar Futures
As a market and policy leader, Secure Solar Futures builds, owns, manages, and funds affordable Resilient Solar Solutions® for schools, hospitals, and businesses. The company combines state-of–the-art solar technology with an innovative business model to make commercial-scale solar readily affordable in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, helping customers to realize the economic, environmental, and community benefits of solar energy. In 2017, Secure Solar Futures became a Certified B Corporation®. Find the company online at www.securesolarfutures.com.
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Erik Curren Secure Solar Futures (540) 466-6128 erik@securesolarfutures.com
