The sun has apparently set on solar energy power for Northampton Area School District.

Nearly seven years after a groundbreaking ceremony heralding solar power was held at Lehigh Elementary School and Moore Elementary School, NASD Board of Education approved, by a unanimous 9-0 vote and at the recommendation of the administration, to terminate its agreement with Energy Alliance Group LLC, Northampton, to provide solar power at the two schools.

“Right now, there are no plans to go ahead,” NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph Kovalchik told a reporter for The Press after the Sept. 11 meeting.

The vote at the Sept. 11 school board meeting terminated a seven-year-plus pact approved by the NASD board June 14, 2010, for solar power purchase agreements and solar lease agreements with Energy Alliance Group for Lehigh and Moore elementary schools.

“The project was underway before I became superintendent,” Kovalchik said after the Sept. 11 meeting.

Kovalchik was appointed NASD superintendent at the June 14, 2010, school board meeting.

Even though Energy Alliance, also known as Alliance Energy Group LLC and MetroTek Electrical Services, then of Kunkletown, Carbon County, and more recently, 490 Belfast Road, Plainfield and Bushkill townships, won a series of rulings in its favor all the way to the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg, according to NASD officials, the Lehigh and Moore solar energy projects have not moved forward.

“There was a due diligence period,” Atty. C. Steven Miller, NASD school board solicitor, said after the Sept. 11 meeting. “One of the complications was finances when they tried to get approval. By the time they got the zoning, the financing dried up.

“No hard feelings. It’s just the way it turned out,” Miller added.

“They haven’t met the terms of the contract,” Kovalchik said. “They haven’t gotten approvals from government - state and local - to build. This project was to be financed by Energy Alliance.”

A spokesperson for Energy Alliance did not respond to a request for a comment by press time.

NASD had projected savings of $2.4 million in electricity costs during a 20-year contract with Energy Alliance. MetroTek was to construct and maintain the solar panels. Energy Alliance was to own the solar system.

NASD held a groundbreaking ceremony for the solar energy project on a sunny fall day, Oct. 20, 2010, at Lehigh Elementary School that included a catered luncheon, speeches and artist’s renderings of the solar panels - attended by 120 Lehigh Valley and state-elected officials, school district and school board representatives and Northampton area civic leaders.

At the groundbreaking, then state Rep. Julie Harhart, R-183rd, said, “MetroTek is participating in a great project for Lehigh and Moore elementary schools, as well as the community, by building and installing this solar energy system.”

Solar panels were to be placed in fields on district land at Lehigh Elementary School, 800 Blue Mountain Drive, Walnutport, Lehigh Township, and Moore Elementary School, 2835 Mountain View Drive, Bath, Moore Township.

Lehigh Township’s then zoning officer Laura Harrier rejected NASD’s plan to build solar panels at Lehigh Elementary School. NASD residents came out in force to protest the solar projects at school board meetings Nov. 8 and Nov. 22, 2010, at Northampton Area High School.

After an appeal by NASD and MetroTek, Northampton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Koury March 5, 2012, upheld the Lehigh Township Zoning Hearing Board’s ruling to reject the application for solar panels at Lehigh Elementary School, as well as a Moore Township ruling to reject the application for solar panels at Moore Elementary School.

MetroTek appealed Koury’s ruling to the Pennsylvania Commonweath Court.

On Dec. 10, 2012, Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard L. McGinley ruled the Court of Common Pleas erred when it affirmed the hearing board’s dismissal of the application to install the solar energy field. The order of the Common Pleas Court was reversed. The matter was remanded to Lehigh Township Zoning Hearing Board, which was directed to approve the applicants’ application to install the energy field as an “accessory use” to Lehigh Elementary School.

Instead, before the Pennsylvania court ruling, Lehigh Township adopted a solar power systems ordinance Oct. 23, 2012. Following adoption of the new ordinance, NASD and MetroTek would have had to submit new plans to Lehigh Township Zoning Hearing Board for solar panels at Lehigh Elementary School, according to Lehigh Township officials.

The Lehigh Township ordinance defined an “accessory system” as one of 18 kilowatts or less and a coverage collector area of 1,000 square feet or less and intended for on-site use. The ordinance defined a “larger system” for solar energy production is permitted as a conditional use.

The Lehigh Elementary School project was expected to generate 1.2 megawatts, which it was stated would supply the school’s energy needs. The solar energy system at both elementary schools was to produce 2,487,003 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually from approximately 11,728 high-efficiency photovoltaic solar modules.

NASD had expected to offset 1,254 tons of carbon dioxide a year, 994 pounds of nitrogen oxide and 2,611,353 pounds of methane annually. The schools’ solar energy projects were to be integrated into NASD’s curriculum, employ local labor and involve the purchase of local materials.

The solar project was made possible by an $831,250 Growing Greener II grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority and was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a stimulus package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009.