Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation- Commonwealth Edison Partnership Creating “Solar Electric Schools”

When things go bad, we often look for someone to blame. So, to be fair, when things go well, we need to find the person or people who deserve the credit and “credit them.” In Illinois, we are seeing a series of successful, solar electric school projects and there are several people who deserve the credit. Bob Romo, Gabriela Martin, Paul Wallace, Janet Bieniak, and Denise Bechen are just a few of the people who deserve a lot of credit for advancing solar energy and renewable energy in Illinois in 2006, and surging forward to 2007 and 2008.

Here’s how it started.
Through the 1999 Franchise Settlement Agreement Between ComEd and the City of Chicago ComEd endowed the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation (http://www.illinoiscleanenergy.org/) with $225 million dollars for improving energy efficiency, advancing the development of renewable energy resources, and protecting natural areas for communities in Illinois. ComEd also committed to the development of renewable energy markets by agreeing to invest $12 million dollars in base load production from a manufacturer that agreed to locate a plant in a City of Chicago enterprise zone. Spire Solar established a PV system design, manufacture and installation firm at a renovated construction debris recycling company that had been fined and shut down by the EPA. The idea was to leverage this commitment with the EPA’s Brownfield to Brightfield initiative already underway. The program funded the remediation of polluted sites and offered incentives for businesses to relocate to them.

It was also the beginning of the John Rowe era and he brought a strong environmental commitment along with the idea that a diverse energy portfolio would be good for the company’s bottom line. Because of the Illinois Retail Rate Law, ComEd was already purchasing landfill gas from municipal solid waste plants. Wind farm developers had just begun migrating to the Midwest and ComEd provided wind data from several Illinois nuclear plants to help with the economic evaluations. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity offered healthy incentives for renewable energy projects, the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation had healthy grants available, and ComEd also offered an incentive if you purchased a system from Spire Solar. Hence, the stage was set for rapid and major growth for renewable energy in Illinois.

Mayor, Richard J. Daly became a huge proponent of renewable energy after traveling abroad and seeing what was going on in other countries. His City of Chicago Department of Environment, at that time headed up by William Aboldt, embraced photovoltaics and set about the task of placing arrays on major museums, and other institutions around Chicago. The Chicago Public Schools (CPS), had a new superintendent hand picked by the Mayor. Arne Duncan recognized PV as an attractive curriculum enhancer so he provided resources for the development of CPS approved curriculum and 10 Chicago Public Schools were selected to receive PV installations.

Again, we’re big on leveraging existing initiatives; the Federal Department of Energy had its Million Solar Roofs program, a leftover from the Clinton administration. The DOE regional Director, Peter Dreyfus had been promoting solar development for years and he opened up his office and provided resources to facilitate the rapid deployment of PV in the Midwest. Meetings were held at the DOE offices and representatives from government, business, and labor gathered to develop a renewable energy strategy for Illinois. This was the birth of the Chicago Solar Partnership whose vision was to promote solar energy as an alternative to more traditional forms of energy believing that schools are the ideal place to begin the transition, because like schools, renewable energy systems are an investment in the future. Charter members of the partnership were:

• Chicago Public Schools
• Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs ( Now ILDCEO Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity )
• Spire Solar Chicago
• ComEd
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local #134
• City of Chicago Department of Environment (CDOE)
• United States Department of Energy Chicago Regional Office (U.S. DOE CRO)
• United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 (U.S. EPA 5)

Meanwhile back at ComEd, Gabriela Martin was recruited by Mary O’Toole by the Director of ComEd Environmental Health and Safety to help with the development of a renewable energy strategy for ComEd. Ms. Martin under the direction of Ms. O’Toole went about the task of establishing the most aggressive program of its kind for any Midwestern utility. The comprehensive plan included development of green power markets through the establishment of a renewable energy trading platform (Illinois Power Exchange), contractor/installer training (coordinated with the IBEW), building code-covenant-licensing and permitting revisions, creation of a wholesale green-power product for ComEd to market (Ecopower), creating a user-friendly distributed generation, interconnection and net-metering program to facilitate growth in the residential markets to name just a few of the programs and initiatives started during her stint at ComEd,( Ms. Martin is now with the Environmental Law and Policy Center.)

ComEd’s belief that education and awareness is a critical first step in the widespread adoption of these technologies led us to the creation of the ComEd Solar Schools program. We began by installing 10kW PV arrays on eight (8) Chicago Public Schools. With the financial support from the City of Chicago, the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, and ComEd, the PV arrays along with state-of-the-art data acquisition systems where deployed along with approved curriculum through the State of Illinois ILEED office. Because some of the available funding was only available for systems within the City of Chicago city limits, a companion program for the suburban communities was created with the help of the Foundation for Environmental Education. This program called for the installation of smaller learning laboratories that would provide a more hands-on experience and also help educate the local community on the benefits for renewable energy. We also secured funding from ComEd for the development of the award winning “Chicago Solar Partnership” website. The website featured real-time output displayed, PV FAQ’s, contractor installer information, curriculum downloads for teachers, links, and a plethora of valuable information for anyone interested in solar energy.

To date, close to 2 MW’s of PV have been installed in Chicago, Illinois, with more on the way. The historic and tenuous collaboration of government, business, and labor lasted long enough to get the ball rolling and the momentum created early on slowed recently due to lack of incentives, changing administrations, and political consternation.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 25th, 2006 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Illinois, Solar Schools . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.