Lincoln College touts energy savings, education from solar project
Lincoln College touts energy savings, education from solar project
LINCOLN — Annual energy savings of about $100,000 are only part of the attraction for the solar power project at Lincoln College in President David Gerlach’s view.
“I want this to be an educational piece for the Lincoln College mission,” Gerlach said.
He said the college is also looking into adding pollinator-friendly plants that would not interfere with operation of the solar panels.
Finishing touches are being completed on the 11-acre, 2.09 megawatt project, located near the college’s baseball and soccer fields on farmland owned by the college. It is being built by Springfield-based Clean Energy Design Group, which is also installing a roof-mounted solar power system at Lincoln High School.
When it is done, the project will not only generate power for the campus but also provide real-time information on energy production available at an information kiosk and to science labs and technology classes.
“It will supply 40% of our power needs,” said Gerlach. “I think it’s a win-win-win all the way around.”
The system is expected to begin generating electricity for the college next month, after testing is complete, he said. The installation is made up of 6,336 photovoltaic modules.
“I can’t wait to see the meter start turning,” he said.
The installation is considered a “behind the meter” project, which means the power generated is used directly by Lincoln College. That saves on certain expenses and fees the college pays, such as transmission costs.
The system will use “net metering,” which means, in the middle of the day, when the system is generating more power than the college needs, “the excess power goes on the grid as a credit,” explained Dan Griffin, CEO of Clean Energy Design Group.
Those credits can be used later in the day, meaning the system helps the college “even after the sun goes down,” he said.
In addition to the two projects in Lincoln, CEDG has 29 other projects going on in Illinois. All 31 projects involve either schools or colleges/universities, said Griffin. Seventeen are ground mounted systems; 14 are roof-mounted projects. As far as kilowatt output, the Lincoln College project is the biggest, he said.
“The thing that gets me the most excited is … when you can take the raw energy of the sun and convert that into useful energy for humanity,” said Griffin. “How in the world can you not embrace that?”
Griffin said solar power is “not a cure-all or save-all for everything,” but it can help reduce reliance on other sources of energy, such as coal.
Under the 20-year agreement between CEDG and the college, CEDG will finance, design, construct, operate and maintain the installation and the college entered a power purchase agreement.
Gerlach said the potential downside is “if somebody creates a very cheap way to produce electricity, we’re locked into this contract.”
The terms of the agreement require CEDG to remove all the equipment at the end of the project, he said. The Illinois Power Agency approved the project for renewable energy credits.
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