McKinley High School got new solar panels in December to save money on electricity. The solars panels were made by a company called OpTerra. They called this project the Ka Hei program. The project began on Nov. 10 and ended on Dec. 31.

The benefit of the solar panels is that it will cut down the electrical bill every month. Principal Ron Okamura said the solar panels should give us about 13 percent of the total power. According to Okamura, the electric bill without solar panels is about $20,000 a month. With the solar panels, it will decrease to $17,400. That means the solar panels will cut down $2,600 on the electrical bill. It will help MHS save a lot of money.

Okamura said, “It’s very expensive. They want to cut down the cost so somebody gave money to the Department of Education to put up the solar panels so that they can cut down the cost of electricity.”

Freshman Huy Tran said, “The solar panels are necessary because if we use it for a long time, it will cut down a large amount of money.”

Social study teacher Eric Bott said, “I think it’s a great idea. McKinley has spent a lot of money on electricity, but we also have access to a lot of sunshine, so hopefully this solar panel array will offset the cost of the school’s electricity. I was at Waipahu High School two weeks ago. They also have these.”