Salpointe Catholic High School installed 23.5-kilowatt solar power photovoltaic panels system on Friday comprises 150 photovoltaic panels mounted atop Salpointe’s Alumni Hall, 1545 E. Copper St., and on the roof of the Corcoran Theater, the largest such system at any local high school, according to press release.

The solar panels will generate 40,000 kilowatt-hours and will produce 2.1 percent of the school’s electricity. That’s like reducing the release of 52,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.The system is valued at $118,344, and will save the school about $170,000 during the next 30 years, was donated by Solar Ventures LLC and installed by Tucson’s Industrial Solar LLC. The system is the largest school-based system connected to the electrical grid of Tucson Electric Power Co.

The Salpointe system uses a tubular design instead of flat solar panels made by California-based Solyndra Inc. The thin-film photovoltaic cells are mounted inside long glass tubes to gather both direct and reflected sunlight and the tubes lie flat on the roof, so they are unseen from the ground and don’t compromise the aesthetics of the school’s 1950s architecture.