The Georgetown-Ridge Farm High School in Central Illinois is looking to buy and use a 10 foot by 10 foot solar panel array to help the school reduce its electricity purchases and – more important – demonstrate to students in the school’s science and industrial arts classes how effectively solar works to generate energy.

The installation, either as a roof-mounted system or as a roof canopy extension on the south side of the school (nearest the industrial arts and special education classrooms), is expected to cost about $10,350, but thanks to an unnamed solar power grant through the state, the school district will end up paying a mere $1,150 out of pocket.

Georgetown-Ridge Farm High School, enrollment just over 380, gets electricity from Indiana-based Illiana Power Company, which serves customers in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. Illiana Power is currently advertising the Illinois State Renewable Energy Rebate program on its website.

The program pays 30 percent of the cost of a solar or wind energy system, which is precisely the same amount offered under ARRA, or the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. However, while ARRA funding runs through 2013 for most renewable energy projects, the Illinois program is only open until April 3, 2010 as currently drafted.

According to School Superintendent Greg Irwin, the array should be in place and operational by the end of the current school year (June 12, 2010). The district is also looking to use wind energy to supplement electricity production, but the solar project - both in terms of financing and product readiness – was all set to deliver and thus chosen first.

Illinois, with its average solar insolation value of 4.0 (on a scale of 2.5 to 6.5 in the continental U.S.), and its 2,800 hours of sunlight per year, offers a minimum of 10 programs aimed at stimulating solar energy use, including PACE financing, a private grant program DCEO (Dept. of Commerce and Economic Opportunity) grants, and various rebates through Illinois utilities like Ameren, ComEd, and MidAmerican Energy.

Illinois also offers funding through the state’s Solar Schools Program (via the Illinois
Clean Energy Community Foundation). Providing incentives for small-scale solar installations – typically one kilowatt or less – the program has, since its inception in 2006, awarded almost $1.5 million to 140 of the state’s public schools.

The Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation also funds solar projects for various non-profit agencies, including such entities as the Dusable Museum of African History, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Cook County Domestic Violence Unit (200 kilowatts).

Foundation grants cover 90 percent of the total cost of solar energy installations, and grantees can call on the Foundation for Environmental Education, or FEE, for help in coordinating system installation and integrating special curricula items about renewable energy into classroom studies. These services are valued at about $3,000 per project, and do not count toward the mandatory 10-percent funding match school districts must provide to qualify.