DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — In October 2022, a $5 million agreement to add solar panel canopies to the Decatur Civic Center was approved by the city. Nearly two years later, the project is finally coming to a close.
Jon Kindseth, Deputy City Manager of Decatur, said that the construction will be completed on July 4th, and that patrons will be able to utilize it by then. Visual construction will be finished, but further electrical work will still be occurring.
In 2020, the city hired an energy consultant to conduct a solar feasibility study in order to evaluate which facilities would benefit from solar panels. “That solar feasibility identified a number of city facilities that have good solar potential, and this was just the first one out the gate.” said Kindseth.
Kindseth said that the Civic Center is just the beginning of bringing renewable energy to Decatur. Their next project is re-roofing the Decatur Public Library and adding solar panels to the roof. Kindseth said they are interested in adding wind turbines to some locations on the outskirts of Decatur, as well as installing electric vehicle chargers and adding some electric vehicles to some city departments’ inventories.
Kindseth said, “Moving towards fully electric vehicles means that our energy usage or electrical energy usage is going to go up, which means that solar will continue to grow even as we look forward.”
Copyright 2024. WAND TV. All rights reserved.
This post was originally published on 3rd party site mentioned in the title of this site
