While students and staff were enjoying their summer break, District 54 was lowering its carbon footprint by installing solar panels on the roofs of Addams Junior High School and Hoover Elementary School in Schaumburg.
The 1,000 panels at Addams and 572 panels at Hoover will offset a portion of the school’s electricity use. On bright, sunny days when the solar energy produced is higher than the amount needed at the schools (such as during the summer months when staff and students are on break), the excess energy will be sent back to the grid and result in reductions to future bills in District 54.
There is also an educational component to the solar installation. The panels are connected to a digital solar energy monitoring tool called AlsoEnergy. Through this tool, students will be able to monitor energy production and consumption levels by the hour, day, month, year and lifetime. This data can be used in classroom lessons when students are studying weather or energy units. Data can also be shared to the school’s digital signage, so students can see information such as how many trees were saved or how many laptops were charged with the amount of energy generated.
District 54 has been researching the use of solar energy for a number of years, and decided to move forward with these two schools in 2024 given the federal grants and incentives currently available. If the project is successful, there is the possibility of expanding to additional schools in the district.
