Champaign and Piatt County home and business owners installing solar energy have triggered the second 1% discount in the Solar Urbana-Champaign program! The program makes it faster, easier, and more affordable to go solar by leveraging the power of volume purchasing, and a community-education campaign.
https://mailchi.mp/urbanaillinois/announcement-solar-urbana-champaign-30...
RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the July 2018 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totalling 1,032.6 Megawatt hours. See attached file.
U19005: Electrical-Medium Voltage Power Distribution Study Updates - should start in mid-September - to evaluate capacity of power distribution line connected to proposed solar farm 2.0 site.
Spring 2018 semesterly report submitted to the Student Sustainability Committee for the Solar at the Idea Garden project.
The solar PV design for the rooftop of the Idea Garden shed is 12 panels with 340 Watts each, which is a total of 4.08 kWdc. The construction estimate is in progress at F&S, then an interconnect agreement will be needed from Ameren.
The Solar Farm 2.0 site selection committee's recommendation was approved by the Chancellor's Capital Review Committee.
The City of Urbana has partnered with the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) and the Grow Solar Partnership to coordinate a second solar group buy in Champaign County, building on the success of Solar Urbana-Champaign, which took place from December 2015 through June of 2016. The advantage of a group buy is the power of volume purchasing, which can significantly reduce the up-front costs of installing solar on your home or business. You do not need to be a City of Urbana resident to participate – the group buy is open to all Champaign County residents and business owners.
RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the June 2018 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totalling 1,087.9 Megawatt hours. See attached file.
The annual usage of electricity at the Idea Garden shed is much lower than the proposed solar array will provide. Because this building is currently powered by Ameren and not connected to the campus electrical grid, there will be a loss of any kilowatt-hours not used during the course of one year.
The Master Gardeners are interested in adding rooftop solar PVs to the garden shed to the east of the Idea Garden in the Arboretum. The Idea Garden is a community garden planned, managed and maintained by the Champaign County Master Gardener volunteers.
The accompanying map shows the layout of the garden, The solar panels would be installed at shed (A) and provide power to building. The power grid would be extended to the garden to power light fixtures and outlets at sites B1-B4, C and D. Remodeling of the Idea Garden to provide access for people with disabilities is scheduled to begin in 2016, so this would be an opportune time to install underground cables. A small parking lot is also to be built at D. Funding for the proposed installation is not available from the grant supporting the remodel.
Sarthak Prasad downloaded the BRC solar production data from the TIGO site. It is attached here.
RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the May 2018 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totalling 1,770.0 Megawatt hours. See attached file.
Solar Urbana-Champaign bulk solar purchase program returns and expands in 2018
The successful Solar Urbana-Champaign group purchasing program is available again in 2018. Since 2016, the program led to the installation of over 1 megawatt of solar on 138 properties across Champaign County. The program educated hundreds of individuals about solar and helped people save on solar through volume purchasing.
In 2018 the program expands eligibility to Piatt County residents as well. And, thanks to new state legislation, even more people can get access to solar. To increase awareness across Champaign and Piatt Counties, Midwest Renewable Energy Association partnered with Champaign-based Prairie Rivers Network, which champions clean, healthy rivers and lakes and safe drinking water to benefit the people and wildlife of Illinois.
“The electricity that has been produced by the 1,050 kW of solar the program contracted in 2016 and 2017 offset around 1.5 million lbs of CO2 being released into atmosphere in those systems’ first years,” said Scott Tess, Environmental Sustainability Manager at the City of Urbana. “That amount of solar energy will also save almost 20 million gallons of water from use in thermoelectric power plants that run on coal or natural gas.” The program is administered by the MREA at no cost to the cities or the counties. MREA has successfully implemented similar programs in other jurisdictions in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Bloomington-Normal, and elsewhere.
Solar Power Hours are free and open to the public. For the month of June, the following Solar Power Hours will be held:
Additional Solar Power Hours are posted on the website.
The 235,000 GSF facility for the Electrical and Computer Engineering department will integrate instruction and research. This project is to reinforce structural steel members in the building for the future placement of a rooftop solar array. There are 970 modules to install with a total DC power rating of 272 kW.
Solar Urbana-Champaign is back with version 3.0!
The successful Solar Urbana-Champaign group purchasing program is available again in 2018. Since 2016, the program has led to the installation of over 1 megawatt of solar on 138 properties across Champaign County. The program has educated hundreds of individuals about solar and helped people save on solar through volume purchasing.
Now, the program expands eligibility to Piatt County residents as well as Champaign County residents. And, thanks to new state legislation, even more people can get access to solar.
Start by attending a Solar Power Hour (full calendar below). This free information session teaches you the basics of solar, its financial implications for your household, and how the solar group buy program works. Then, get a free, no obligation site assessment from the competitively selected solar installer for Solar Urbana-Champaign 3.0.
This program was brought to you by the City of Urbana, Prairie Rivers Network, and the Midwest Renewable Energy Assocation. We welcome everyone to help spread the word!
If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know by responding directly to this email. Shine on!
- Peter
The iCAP Working Group (iWG) met on May 10, 2018, to discuss and start the assessment of SWATeam recommendation, EGen008 Pursue Solar PPA. The iWG's draft comment on the recommendation was:
"We support this recommendation. We should issue an RFP for a PPA.”
The Student Sustainability Committee allocated $5,800 to the student group, InSPIRE, that is installing solar charging stations.
This proposal directly funds:
The geothermal researchers suggest considering geothermal in collaboration with aquaponics. Apparently, our region could be a great supplier of shrimp farming some day...
Spring 2018 Semesterly Report Submitted to the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) for the rooftop solar project.
The eGen SWATeam submitted a recommendation, to the iWG, stating, "Explore the option of a PPA with a local solar developer."
See attached the SWATeam recommendation, EGen008 Pursue Solar PPA, complete with comments from all the eGen SWATeam members.
