7 acres of solar panels will be installed next to Belleville school this summer
The new Belle Valley School was built eight years ago on the concept of being green. Before the end of summer, seven acres next to the building will be filled with solar panels, furthering that mission.
“I’m told it’s the largest school solar array south of Chicago,” said Belle Valley 119 Superintendent R. Dane Gale.
The seven acres are expected to generate around 1.59 megawatts of energy — enough to cover at least half of the building’s energy needs, the district hopes. Gale anticipates the solar energy saving the district between $75,000 and $100,000 in utilities a year. Each month, Belle Valley spends approximately $15,000 in energy.
To get a better sense of the payoff, Gale said it could take a few years. The district will be looking at its energy consumption for the last three years and track it for the first two or three years after installation to compare.
“We just don’t know at this point in time,” he said of the potential savings. “It’s going to vary, naturally, depending on how much sunlight we get in a year.”
In the meantime, Gale says local taxpayers won’t be saddled with additional costs of the development.
Belle Valley School is located off Illinois 158 (Mascoutah Avenue) with a second access off Green Mount Road. The solar panels will occupy the seven acres south and east of the school.
The Illinois Shines program, which gives block grants to support the development of solar energy in the state, granted Belle Valley around $3 million to support solar energy in the district over the next 24 years.
“A lot of districts around here, what they’ve done is they bought their own solar panels, and they recouped the costs in saved electricity,” Gale said.
Belle Valley administration didn’t want to pursue renewable energy that exact way, however: The district was already “deep in debt” after building the new school when mine subsidence damaged Belle Valley North elementary in 2007, so Gale researched grants like Illinois Shines and companies to write them.
The new campus is just over a mile from the old building behind the Belle Valley Industrial Park., where no underground mines have been detected.
The Belleville City Council voted to annex the seven acres Monday night to expedite the project. The district otherwise would have had to wait until September for approval from the St. Clair County Board.
Annissa McCaskill, director of residential and commercial development services for Belleville, said the property was previously being leased for farming. The ordinance approved by the city allows the district to move forward.
“What [the city] liked more than anything is there was no money coming from the taxpayer whatsoever,” Gale said.
The project was supposed to begin in February or March, but was delayed because of coronavirus and panel shortages. Installation is now slated for late July, and Gale said it would take one or two months to set up panels over the entire seven acres.
Other metro-east schools have begun moving toward renewable energy sources, including Belleville’s Harmony-Emge District 175 and Triad Community Unit District 2 in Troy.