There are a lot of solar schools throughout Illinois. Some districts have more than one solar school. In Vernon Hills, the Hawthorn School District (No. 73) has solar school installations at all of its schools.

• Hawthorn Middle School
• Hawthorn Aspen Elementary
• Hawthorn Middle School South
• Hawthorn Middle School North
• Hawthorn Elementary School North
• Hawthorn Elementary School South
• Townline Elementary/School of Dual Language

Regardless of how you look at this, it is a school district dedicated to teaching its students about solar electricity.  The schools are on the web site www.IllinoisSolarSchools.org including the solar data.  Lisa Cerauli is our primary contact.  Ceraulil@hawthorn73.org is her e-mail in case you want to ask her how she does it.

– Glen Kizer

One of the basic requirements for a solar school 1 kW grant project from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Project is visibility. The solar electricity panels are required to be installed so they are visible to students. The pictures below provide you with three (3) examples at schools around Illinois.

Unionridge

Prieto

Elmwood

As you can see from the pix above, panels can be high up near the top of a tall school building (Prieto Academy in Chicago) or high on the wall of the building above the front entrance (Union Ridge) or near the ground at a level many schools call “mower height” that is near the front entrance of the school (Elmwood Jr/Sr HS). All of these installations create high visibility for the solar panels and make the solar school project at each school more successful.

A 1.4 kW solar electricity system is being installed at the Center near downtown Columbus, Ohio during the month of October, 2013. We will do a follow up with pix when the installation is completed but we wanted to preview the project.

The installation will be pole mounted with a top of the rack mounting system and the pole will be set on a concrete pad. The Columbus Ohio Chapter of the IBEW will do the installation, but there are a number of partners in this project.

• The City of Columbus is digging the hole.
• A local solar company, SolarVision LLC, is donating funds to the project.
• The Brian David Robertson (BDR) Foundation is donating equipment.
• Canadian Solar donated the solar panels.
• Solar Cascade paid for the drawings and the design of the pole mounted system and Thomas Van Cleef is handing a number of the site preparation and IT issues.
• The Foundation for Environmental Education is administering the project.

According to Christie Vargo, the Center Director, “We love this project for two reasons. The first reason is that it will allow us to introduce our visitors to solar energy. The second reason is that the partners in this project are all working in collaboration to help us illustrate the power of a community that works together.”

— by Glen Kizer

At 1710 W. Addison Street in Chicago, Illinois, there is a wonderful school building with a piece of new technology, a 1+ kW solar electricity system.  The photovoltaic (PV) system will be used as a teaching tool in the classroom and is visible from those same classrooms. Live data can be found on Illinoissolarschools.org

St. Andrew Solar Panels

The school is for students up through the 8^th grade.  Allen Ackermann is the Principal.  Earth Wind and Solar did the solar installation.

It is technically called “the Rockford Solar Farm at Rockford Airport.”  It is a 3 MW solar electricity system that generates more than 4,000 MWH per year.  It is on a 30 degree tilt that is fixed and south facing.

All of the panels are high efficiency 290 watt poly modules which are manufactured by the Wanxiang Company and most of them are assembled in their Rockford, Illinois facility.  The site is about 70 acres and was provided in the form of a long term lease with the Rockford Airport Authority and the City of Rockford, Illinois.

The project cost approximately $13 million including project development, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), interconnection, project management and administration and construction financing.  Another 40 MW is being planned and may start later in 2013 or 2014.  If you have any questions about this project, you may e mail Daniel Li at Dli@Wanxiang.com.

Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation (ICECF) funded a 1 kW solar electricity system at the Alexander Grade School in Alexander, Illinois.

The school is one of those classic buildings that driving by and seeing all of the brick might cause someone to call it an “old” building.  And it is an older school building but it is a classic because it has huge windows in every classroom allowing in tons of natural light and beautiful woodwork and a fantastic gym.  But it is one of the cleanest schools I have ever seen and the security is tight.  For an old building, there are fantastic locking mechanisms on every door and a security camera alerting the office if anyone is on school grounds that is not supposed to be there.  It reminds me of the school I attended for my elementary school many years ago.

Alexander Grade

Alexander Grade

The installation was done by SunAir Systems by Dave Merrill and includes 6 Suntech 170 watt PV panels and a Solectria inverter.  The data can be read by going to IllinoisSolarSchools.org.

Andrew Stremlau is the principal and the primary contact for the school and his e mail can be found at the school page above.