New Mexico’s Third Largest School District Outfits Five Education Facilities with 140 Hybrid Solar/Grid-Powered Parking Lot Lights from Qnuru
 
Qnuru™, the premier provider of energy efficient digital lighting solutions, announced that the Santa Fe Public School District (“SFPS”) has installed 140 of its hybrid solar/grid-powered parking lot lights in four elementary schools and Santa Fe High.  The new light fixtures utilize Qnuru’s ETL-Certified LED light bulbs and are equipped with head-mounted photovoltaic panels which provide up to 25% of each fixture’s nighttime power requirement.  The 140 Qnuru light poles will save SFPS approximately 204,000 kilowatt hours annually and reduce its lighting maintenance costs by over $22,000 each year.  Qnuru is a part of The Noribachi Group, a clean tech private equity firm.
 
“Every dollar we save in energy costs is a dollar we can use to pay teachers and help fund art, music and athletic programs,” said Lisa Randall, Energy Conservation Program Coordinator for the Santa Fe Public School District (SFPS).  SFPS spends $4.5 million annually on electricity, natural gas, water, sewer and solid waste removal.  Its annual lighting bill alone is $1.5 million. Randall’s charter is to cut $450,000 from the district’s yearly energy costs by inculcating conservation habits in its students and installing new energy saving technologies. “Behavioral change is free and within our immediate grasp but we must couple it with energy efficient solutions from companies like Qnuru if we are to succeed in saving money for our schools and train our children to be the next generation of environmental stewards.”
 
“Like many businesses, schools are under tremendous pressure to reduce their operating costs and demonstrate environmental leadership for their students and communities,” said Rhonda Dibachi, President and CEO of Qnuru.  “We are proud to be partnering with the Santa Fe Public School District to reduce its lighting energy costs. When students see the photovoltaic panels sitting on top of their parking lot lights, it becomes a teachable moment about the importance of solar power and its ability to power the future.”
 
The First Hybrid Solar/Grid-Powered LED Lighting Solutions
Qnuru uniquely offers its customers the option to fully or partially solar-enable their LED lighting applications by adding fixture-specific photovoltaic materials and Qnuru’s suite of intelligent power management technologies. Qnuru’s solar-enabled LED lights harness the company’s Direct Distributive Power Generation (DDPG) technology whereby solar energy is seized, sized and used at the point of application rather than from remote power generation plants.  By generating electricity at the point of need, Qnuru decreases overall power consumption; every lighting installation becomes a mini solar farm, producing the right amount of energy to optimize power to each individual light. Qnuru’s patented Universal Lighting Control (ULC) processor provides the intelligent interface between the photovoltaic power generation, power storage, and the grid for hybrid solar/grid lighting applications like those installed at the Santa Fe Public School District.  The ULC intelligently charges and discharges the solar battery to feed power to the lights, then seamlessly switches the fixture’s power source to the grid connection when the solar battery runs low.  

   
About Santa Fe Public Schools
The Santa Fe Public School District is one of the largest and most diverse in the state of New Mexico. It serves nearly 13,000 students in 36 educational facilities encompassing 2.2 million square feet of space. Bobbie J. Gutierrez is the school district’s Superintendent. In 2010 she created the district’s first Energy Conservation Program Coordinator position to oversee the school system’s energy usage and environmental curriculum. 
 
About Qnuru
Qnuru is a digital lighting technology innovator. Our intelligent lighting solutions deliver superior light quality while reducing grid dependency to positively impact your bottom line. We design and manufacture brilliant lighting solutions, including the Vector product family of LED Light Bulbs, the Matrix product line of new LED fixtures, and the Helix line of solar-powered LED luminaires. Our products ETL-Certified and designed and assembled in the U.S.  Qnuru is part of the Noribachi Group, a clean technology private equity firm. For more information about how we can take your lighting light years ahead, visit www.qnuru.com. Once you do, you too will see the light.
 
About Noribachi
The Noribachi Group, LLC is a private equity firm focused on the clean technology economy.  Our goal is to inject clean, green and renewable energy technologies and products into everyday life. The Noribachi Group invests in and supports the development and commercialization of core technologies critical to the burgeoning clean energy industry. Since 2007, The Noribachi Group has founded, funded and is building 10 clean technology businesses in areas as diverse as LED/solar lighting, solar material manufacturing, light-powered consumer electronics, and home energy storage systems. Noribachi has offices in Albuquerque, NM, San Francisco, CA, and Shanghai, China. For more information visit www.noribachi.com.