"First of its kind" solar project being installed in Rushville

"First of its kind" solar project being installed in Rushville





Schuyler County Engineer Dave Schneider sees America's growing dependence on foreign oil in every aspect of his job.



"It's in the asphalt we lay, the steel we put in bridges, the energy to bring it to us, the snowplowing, the salt delivery," Schneider said. "Our dependence on foreign oil is so great that anything we can produce in America has to be a plus."



Schneider is spearheading a project designed to produce power for the county's highway department using a renewable resource -- the sun.



Installation work began last week on 42 rooftop panels to collect solar energy. Plans call for the system -- the only one of its kind in West-Central Illinois -- to be fully operational by June 6.



"If we have an average year, we should be able to produce 100 percent of the energy from solar for this highway department," Schneider said. "Not having an electric bill here will be wonderful."



Seventy-five percent of the project's $63,535 cost came through an Energy Efficiency Block Grant, a regionally competitive state grant. A grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Foundation covered the rest of the cost.



Two Rivers Regional Council of Public Officials made block grants totaling $185,000 for 12 energy efficiency projects in Adams,Complete Your sculpture Magazine Collection for Less!A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass. Brown, Pike and Schuyler counties.



Most of the grants covered heating/ventilation/air conditioning, insulation and lighting upgrades.



The highway department grant "was the most costly of all the grants we gave out, but we felt it could be a good model for the region and might bring other energy projects," said Sandy Trusewych, director of the community development department for Two Rivers.



The panels measure three-feet by five-feet and will cover about 10 percent of the highway department's roof space. The panels are guaranteed for 20 years, but with the overall system, "hopefully we can make it do 25 years and maybe even more," Schneider said.



Moving to renewable power was the next step for the county which used earlier grants to boost energy efficiency in county buildings through insulation and upgrades on heating/ventilation/air conditioning units.



"We wanted to make sure we were saving energy, conserving first before we looked at renewables," Schneider said. "The solar project is the most low-maintenance, and the other thing is it has the least impact on neighbors in a small community."



Just as important, Schneider expects the $63,535 project will save money for the county.Largest Collection of billabong boardshorts,



"When budgets are very tight, you try to make things work," he said. "We try to find efficiencies the best we can."



Energy collected by the solar panels will go into the electrical power grid now serving the highway department.



"We'll get credit for overproduction in the summertime with the longer days and more sun, then use the credit we build up into the wintertime," Schneider said. Reporting how well the system works is a requirement of the grant.



"When we're up and running, we'll literally be able to take information collected from the solar panel and have it real-time on a website. That will be an educational tool with daily logs to see how much we're producing energy-wise day in and day out," Schneider said.



He hopes to see that information available on the county's website -- and to take hands-on proof that "we're really doing something" into the schools, service clubs and organizations like 4-H.



"We hear a lot about windpower, but there's something to be said about solar and the efficiencies that have been achieved in the past five years. As energy costs go up and up,uy Aion Kinah direct from us at low prices the cost competitiveness is getting better and better," Schneider said. "There has been a real boost in interest in solar since the Japanese earthquake and the issues with nuclear power."



Trusewych hopes the project will generate more solar power projects in the area, which has seen little activity since the 1970s.



"We were looking for residential solar projects, and the only ones we find were installed in the early 1970s when there were incentives then for that energy crisis. A number of homes in Quincy have solar panels on the roof, but nothing recently," she said. "We'd love to see a demand here locally so we could get suppliers here closer.The newest Ipod nano 5th is incontrovertibly a step up from last year's model,"