The nonprofit Generation180 says 10,840 US K-12 schools now have solar panels on their property or buy power from a solar system. That’s about 9% of schools and, by the group’s count, about 1 in 7 students, or more than 7 million children. The figures come from the sixth edition of its “Brighter Future” report, published in August 2026 with data collected mainly from January to April 2026.
What counts as a solar-powered school?
Generation180 defines it broadly. A school counts if a solar system sits on its property or supplies its electricity, and the list includes public, private and pre-K to grade 12 schools. The group drew its school lists from federal National Center for Education Statistics data. Most of these schools run only part of their load on solar and still draw from the grid. The report doesn’t say any school runs fully on the sun.
The group reports 2.4 gigawatts of combined school solar capacity, with an average system of 225 kilowatts. It says that output equals the electricity use of all households in Austin, Texas, which it puts at more than 450,000 homes, citing the US EPA greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator and Census Bureau data. That’s an equivalence based on annual output, not a claim that those homes draw power from schools. The number of solar schools has nearly doubled since 2016, when the group counted 5,450.
Where is school solar growing fastest?
California leads with 2,921 solar schools and about 895 megawatts, followed by New Jersey (901 schools) and New York (701). Hawaii and Vermont have the highest share of schools with solar, at 30% each. Electrek reports that Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York saw the fastest capacity growth from 2021 to 2025.
Roanoke City Public Schools in Virginia is the example the report highlights. The district is installing nearly 9.4 megawatts across 29 sites and estimates $46.5 million in energy savings over 35 years, according to Electrek. Our Roanoke story explains why that figure differs from others reported for the same district.
Why It Matters to You
If you have a child in a US school, there’s a decent chance, roughly 1 in 7 by this count, that the building has solar. That doesn’t mean lower bills for families: the “1 in 7” figure counts enrollment, not students who benefit from savings, and the report doesn’t estimate how much money schools save. The benefit for communities is mostly at the district level, where savings depend on each contract, utility rate and system size. Batteries could add emergency-shelter backup, but only a small number of schools have them so far.
Do schools save money with solar?
They can, but the report doesn’t measure it. Individual districts publish projections, such as Roanoke’s, and those are forecasts over decades, not results.
Can school batteries run emergency shelters?
About one-third of US public K-12 schools are FEMA-designated emergency shelters, according to Electrek’s summary of the report. Only about 155 schools have battery storage, under 0.1% of all schools. Roughly 94 of those pair batteries with solar, and the rest are batteries alone. California has 109 of them. Tish Tablan, the report’s lead author, says schools could become “clean-powered resilience hubs.” A battery can keep a shelter running only if it’s sized and wired for that job, and the report doesn’t measure that.
How reliable is the count?
It’s a survey, not a census. Generation180 didn’t survey all 125,000 or more US schools, so some systems may be missing. District-wide arrays count for every school in the district, and capacity is split evenly across schools unless known, so a school can be “solar-powered” while getting a small share of its power from solar. Ownership type is known for only about 57% of schools, so statements about third-party versus district ownership don’t cover all of them.
What could slow it down?
Electrek notes that the 2025 federal tax law ends clean electricity credits sooner for new solar and wind projects. Storage is treated differently and can still qualify, and public schools can claim credits through elective pay.
Sources
- Generation180: Brighter Future Report 2026 (Aug 2026)
- Electrek: 1 in 7 US students now goes to a solar-powered school (Aug 28, 2026)