LAS VEGAS (AP) - Administrators at the sprawling and cash-strapped Las Vegas-area school district are hoping a $4 million investment in rooftop solar panels for as many as 20 campuses will produce power and cut costs.

At current energy prices, the photovoltaic systems could provide about 25 percent of the schools' power and save the nation's fifth-largest school system some $190,000 a year for the next 20 years, said Paul Gerner, associate facilities superintendent at the Clark County School District.

"It makes it a pretty attractive proposition," Gerner said.

Officials aren't counting on energy savings to pay for startup costs, but they do expect a return on the investment due to an NV Energy rebate program and other government incentives.

The Las Vegas-based district is expected to receive $1.4 million in federal stimulus funding once the first five schools are outfitted as solar farms, and $1.2 million in one-time rebates for the same five schools from NV Energy, southern Nevada's dominant utility.

The one-time rebate pays $5 for the installation of one photovoltaic watt of power, so the district would get a $250,000 rebate for the installation of each 50,000 photovoltaic watt-system at a school.

If all 20 schools hook up solar power systems, the district could get as much as $5 million in rebate checks. The district currently spends about $65 million on electricity a year.

NV Energy has approved the school projects but has stopped taking new applications for the rebate program, a utility spokeswoman said.

Two contractors, Helix Electric and Bombard Renewable Energy, a
division of Bombard Electricity, said the solar projects will provide work and specialized photovoltaic installation training for electricians.

Vegas PBS, a self-funded service sponsored by the district, recently dedicated a $60 million building at McLeod Drive and Flamingo Road that used rebates, grants and donations to pay for a 715-kilowatt photovoltaic panel system.

The energy-efficient facility also has insulation and geothermal wells, and is using about one-fourth of the energy per square foot it used in its old building, built in 1974.

When the solar panels are generating excess energy, the power flows back into the city's main power grid at a savings for Vegas PBS, general manager Tom Axtell said.

Many of the Clark County School District's more than 350 campuses share the same design, so Axtell said there would be economies of scale in planting solar farms on school rooftops.

"You do it for one high school, there's probably 10 others that have the same footprint. So you don't have the same expense of engineering," he said.