08/24/2026
A company called Zero Emissions Northwest pitched both boards in May 2025. It owns the systems, it installs them, it maintains them for the first ten years, and the district just buys the power. No bond, no capital request, no line item that has to survive a budget fight.
Both boards approved it that August. Ritzville's side is 492 panels across the grade school and the high school. Lind's serves the elementary and middle schools and ran late because the ground turned out to be rock.
At the end of ten years the districts can buy the systems outright, extend the deal, or have the whole thing hauled away.
Fifty thousand dollars a year between two rural districts is a teacher, or a bus, or a science program. The company told the boards the savings could go toward STEM and life-skills programming.