Palo Alto Unified School District will begin installing solar panels in the main parking lot on the corner of Embarcadero Road and El Camino Real this summer.

The structures will be installed at Paly, JLS, Terman, Nixon, Escondido and Ohlone, according to Rebecca Navarro, the project lead.

According to board member Todd Collins, the panels will alleviate budget concerns.

“The benefit will come directly to the district, reducing our costs,” Collins stated.

Freshman Rohin Ghosh says the project will also benefit campus culture.

“It will serve as an example to students and encourage them to take more steps to protect the environment,” Ghosh said.

Others, however, criticize the project’s aesthetic impact.

“The Tower Building, the Haymarket theater and the new Performing Arts Center is a complex of which all of Palo Alto should be proud,” said Paly alum Edith Miller in an email to the school board. “It cannot be hidden by solar panels.”