A pair of Greene County school districts are moving in opposite directions on proposed solar energy projects.
The Greene Prairie Press reports that the North Greene School District is beginning to see action on a project that was signed into action more than a year ago with Future Green Energy Consortium. Superintendent Jackie Kuchy told the North Greene Board of Education at their April meeting that Future Green has requested specifications of the Jr./Sr. High School building’s rooftop so they can begin construction. Kuchy told the board of education that delays in the project had been somewhat attributed to a change in management at Future Green that had slowed the communication process down, and that Future Green was also awaiting more school districts to come on board with solar energy projects in an effort to keep construction costs down.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Greenfield School District has had to place their solar energy project on hold. Superintendent Andy Stumpf told the Greenfield Board of Education at their April 15th meeting that a recent audit done by Ameren-Illinois on the elementary school’s electrical system had shown a shortfall in a full offset of the school’s power usage. The goal was to have the solar project provide 100% of the power needs for the school. According to the audit, the school would only be able to offset 59% of its usage with its current electrical system. The district has held off on approving the bonds to fund the project to see whether or not if the solar array’s installation would still be cost effective or not. The solar panel project is expected to cost just short of $600,000. Stump told the board that he would have more information within the next week to provide on the project’s feasibility.