Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. is aiming to be more environmentally and fiscally responsible by using solar panels to power Mentone Elementary School and Burket Educational Center.
TVSC was selected among 20 lottery winners out of 77 participants eligible for the NIPSCO Feed-In Tariff program. The NIPSCO FIT 2.0 program sells excess energy back to NIPSCO for profit.
Both Burket and Mentone have the necessary 1.5-acre space for the ground-mounted solar panels and optimal access to sunlight, making them ideal candidates. The panels would be installed by New Holland Rochester affiliate Ag Technologies, run by Jim Straeter, a Rochester resident. The panels will cost TVSC $1.12 million and will pay themselves off by the sixth year of operation and will then start making money back in the form of carbon credits.
These solar panels are self-monitoring, easily fixable and are rated to withstand inch-wide hail, according to Straeter. In the three years that Straeter has been installing these panels, no panels have needed to be replaced, he said.
The program is estimated to make $50,000 annually, which would pay salary for an extra teacher, according to Superintendent Brett Boggs. TVSC is looking for partner investors to bring clean energy to the area. Boggs says that he is excited for this “good opportunity for Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation” and that he believes it will pay off and benefit the community.
The intent of the installation is to power the schools by 100 percent renewable resources and to later sell the excess energy at 2.5 to 3 cents per kilowatt hour.
More information on the solar panels is available at enphase.com and newhollandrochester.com
(Story By The Times Union)
