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Oswego District 308 eyeing solar panels on schools to reduce electric costs · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Aswego District three hundred and eight eyeing solar panels on
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  Speaker 1: schools to reduce electric costs. Written by Eric Shelkoff. This
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  Speaker 1: article is being read by an automated.
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  Speaker 2: Voice brought to you by Everlett.
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  Speaker 1: Aswego School District three hundred and eight looks to save
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  Speaker 1: an estimated sixty one point six million dollars over thirty
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  Speaker 1: years by installing solar panels on seven schools. As we know,
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  Speaker 1: electricity costs have been going up significantly, not just here
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  Speaker 1: but all over the country. District three hundred and eight
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  Speaker 1: chief financial Officer and chief school Business Official, Rafaye l
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  Speaker 1: Obafemi told school board members during their May eleventh school
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  Speaker 1: board meeting the district looked into the possibility of installing
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  Speaker 1: solar panels as a way to mitigate that increase in
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  Speaker 1: electricity costs, especially with the installation of data centers in
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  Speaker 1: our area, which is driving up the cost of electricis city.
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  Speaker 2: He said, the.
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  Speaker 1: Board has not made a decision yet on installing the panels.
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  Speaker 1: Board members are expected to continue to discuss the issue
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  Speaker 1: at future meetings. As proposed, rooftop mounted solar photovoltaic arrays
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  Speaker 1: would be installed on both Oswego and Oswego East High Schools,
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  Speaker 1: along with five junior high schools Bednarsick, Murphy, Plank, Thompson
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  Speaker 1: and Trauber. We're not going to offset demand completely, Kurtz Hints,
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  Speaker 1: business development manager for Performance Services, said during the meeting,
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  Speaker 1: We're going to shift your peak demand day from the
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  Speaker 1: highest most expensive day to a much less expensive day.
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  Speaker 1: Performance Services has done similar solar projects for several Illinois
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  Speaker 1: school districts, including Valley View Community.
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  Speaker 2: Unit School District three hundred and sixty five U.
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  Speaker 1: In Romoville and Glenbard Township High School District eighty seven
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  Speaker 1: in glen Ellen. The company is proposing that the school
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  Speaker 1: district purchased the solar panels. Maintaining the panel is estimated
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  Speaker 1: to cost about fifteen thousand dollars a year, Hince said.
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  Speaker 1: Board member Amy Morillo. Asked what would happen to the
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  Speaker 1: solar panels when a building's roof needed repairs. Repairing the
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  Speaker 1: roof in sections would be an option, Hints said, I
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  Speaker 1: will say we have extended the life of many roofs
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  Speaker 1: because now direct sunlight is not hitting the roof, it's
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  Speaker 1: hitting the solar panels.
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  Speaker 2: He said.
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  Speaker 1: With the installation of the sol Solar panels. The district
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  Speaker 1: is expected to receive one point five one million dollars
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  Speaker 1: in comet incentives rest bates, along with four point eight
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  Speaker 1: nine million dollars in Renewable Energy Credit revenue and a
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  Speaker 1: Federal Inflation Reduction Act incentive of eight point one five
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  Speaker 1: million dollars. Village Path to Solar. In February, Oswego Village
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  Speaker 1: trustees voted to become a part of a community solar program.
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  Speaker 1: The village said we'll save an estimated forty thousand dollars
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  Speaker 1: annually in electric costs. The community solar program allows the
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  Speaker 1: village to subscribe to a remote solar energy project instead
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  Speaker 1: of installing panels on site. At the February seventeenth Oswego
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  Speaker 1: Village Board meeting, trustees unanimously passed a resolution approving solar
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  Speaker 1: agreements with Solstice Power Technologies LLC. Adam Hoover, director of
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  Speaker 1: Strategic Accounts at the Northern Illinois Municipal Electric Cooperative, told
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  Speaker 1: village trustees community solar is a program that is guaranteed
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  Speaker 1: to provide ten percent savings while still finding the fixed
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  Speaker 1: rate savings that NIMAC brings. NIMEC serves as the broker
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  Speaker 1: and consultant for the village's electrical aggregation program. Community Solar
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  Speaker 1: in Comed Territory allows residential and business customers to subscribe
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  Speaker 1: to a remote solar energy project instead of installing panels
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  Speaker 1: on site. Oswego Finance Director Andrea Lamberg told village trustees
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  Speaker 1: participants receive monthly Community Solar Aggregation credits on their Comed
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  Speaker 1: electric bills based on their share of solar generation, which
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  Speaker 1: offsets the electric cities supply portion of their bills, she said.
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  Speaker 1: Oswego Village President Ryan Kaufman liked the fact that over
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  Speaker 1: the life of a twenty year contract, the village could
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  Speaker 1: save about eight hundred thousand dollars. If electric prices rise.
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  Speaker 2: It could be even greater than that. He said. It's
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  Speaker 2: a good deal all around.