Following national trend, these metro-east schools are going solar. What are the benefits?

Walking up to the Harmony-Emge campus in Belleville, it looks much the same as it has in recent years.

But from a drone or satellite view, there’s a notable change that occurred in 2020.

Rows of solar panels now line the roof, harnessing energy from the sun and converting it into electricity for Harmony Intermediate Center and Emge Junior High School.

Nearby at Ellis Elementary — the third school in Harmony-Emge School District 175 — a slightly smaller solar installation is easier to see, with panels installed on the ground just south of the school.

The systems were completed under the leadership of then-Superintendent Dave Deets, who told the Belleville News-Democrat at the time that the district was doing so to cut electricity costs and lead the way with environmental initiatives.

The project cost $1.2 million, but the district benefited from hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial incentives from the state that brought the net cost down.

Now, the solar panels are paying off.

“They offset our costs pretty substantially, especially with the rise in energy prices since the completion of the project,” Superintendent Dustin Nail said.

The district saved about $50,000 in the first year of having the roof-mounted system at the Harmony-Emge campus and the ground-mounted system at Ellis Elementary, according to Nail. In the second year, the district saved about $70,000.

He said the district expects to see additional savings now that it has paid off a loan it took out to purchase the equipment.

The cost savings come from the district being able to supply a large portion of its own electricity and not having to pay for that energy from the grid, which is subject to price fluctuations.

“We’re using less of that energy, so that fluctuation has less of an impact on our budget,” Nail said.

He said when energy prices changed significantly about a year and a half ago, a lot of school districts saw their power bills double.

Since school districts set their budgets a year in advance, anticipating those fluctuations is “almost impossible” and districts then have to look at other areas to cut, Nail said.

On his computer and on monitors in hallways, graphs show how much energy the panels are producing in real time as well as on a daily and yearly basis for the district, staff, students and visitors to see. The data helps the district make sure that the panels are maintaining their effectiveness, Nail said, and teachers have been able to incorporate solar energy into science curriculum.

With a few years under its belt, Harmony-Emge 175 — which was one of seven school districts nationwide to be recognized in 2020 as a “District of Character” — is now exploring the possibility of expanding its solar project.

Nail said the district is conducting a study with Veregy, which it worked with for the two existing installations, to see what a solar canopy system over its buses would look like and what additional savings that might provide.

The system would protect the district’s buses from the elements and provide power for electric vehicle charging stations that staff and others in the community could use, as well as charging stations for electric buses if the district adds them to its fleet.

School districts increasingly going solar

Harmony-Emge is not alone in turning to solar energy to save money on electricity costs and reduce its carbon emissions.

Many school districts across the country, state and metro-east have similarly opted for solar in some capacity, including — but not limited to — Triad Community Unit School District 2, Belle Valley School District 19, Mascoutah School District 19, Granite City Community Unit School District 9 and Highland Community Unit School District 5.

Belleville Township High School District 201 and Edwardsville Community Unit School District 7 are also currently in the process of going solar.

At its November meeting, Belleville 201’s Board of Education approved a proposal from StraightUp Solar to install a solar array along the south roof facing Illinois Route 15 of the Center for Academic and Vocational Excellence, or CAVE.

Superintendent Brian Mentzer said District 201 has been engaged in discussions about solar for six or seven years, but wasn’t able to find a good fit at Belleville West or East.

At the CAVE, which opened its doors to students in fall 2022, there’s a large roof that’s positioned in a way that can optimize solar benefits, he said.

The timing is also right for the district now given the federal and state incentives available for districts to go solar.

The total solar system on the roof of the main CAVE building costs $991,000, but through a variety of incentives — two of which are immediate and one that is paid back to the district annually over seven years — the net cost will be $275,000.

The estimated cost savings over the 25-year lifespan of the solar array is $1.8 million.

The financial incentives Belleville 201 and other districts have been able to leverage include Ameren Illinois’ smart inverter rebate, solar renewable energy credits through the Illinois Shines program and direct pay investment tax credits, which were introduced and expanded under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Mentzer said the incentives are the best that they have been for schools and that he thinks the time to take advantage of them will be limited.

“I worry that they won’t be there if we wait,” Mentzer said.

The solar array installation will be completed by July, and the district is also in the planning stage for another array on the forthcoming annex to the CAVE.

A $13 million solar project

Meanwhile, at Edwardsville District 7, the Board of Education at its November meeting approved the issuance of up to $13 million in debt certificates to install solar panels at 10 of the district’s buildings, including Edwardsville High School, Liberty Middle School and Worden, Hamel, Leclaire, Glen Carbon, Albert Cassens, and Goshen elementary schools.

The district is doing so to reduce both electric costs and its carbon footprint, Public Relations and Communications Coordinator Mary Ann Mitchell said.

The plan is to have the installations complete 12 to 18 months from now, she said. Most of the solar panels will be roof-mounted, with the exception of Hamel Elementary School, which will have ground-mounted solar panels due to ongoing construction plans there.

The district expects between 40% and 60% in energy savings with the use of the solar panels, Mitchell said. Those savings will pay off the debt certificates over the next 15 years. Once they’re paid off, the district will own the solar panels and continue to reap the benefits for the expected 30-year lifespan of the panels.

These metro-east school districts are following a national trend in which schools are increasingly turning to solar to power their buildings.

Since 2015, the amount of solar capacity installed at K-12 schools across the country has tripled and the number of schools with solar has doubled, according to a 2022 report from clean energy nonprofit Generation180.

In that report, Illinois ranked fifth out of the 51 states for cumulative solar capacity on K-12 schools and third for the number of schools with solar.