Clean Energy Schools
The SJ-R reports that Porta School district is installing clean energy units including geothermal heating/cooling systems and a wind turbine.
"But, in the long term, we're going to continue to save money for future generations of the Porta School District," he said. "Someone has to bite the bullet, so we're going to."
I'm impressed by their long-term thinking. Many school districts back off this idea as soon as they see the up-front costs regardless of the future savings. They would rather let the district's financial situation 10 years from now be someone else's problem.
But even the initial costs of installing clean energy alternatives are going down. Some school districts and local governments are getting grants from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation.
Here in Springfield, CWLP is introducing new rebates resulting from the Sierra Club clean energy agreement that make it even cheaper to install geothermal systems. The new net metering standards make solar panels a good investment that could not only reduce spending on utility costs but potentially make the district money while the schools sit empty on sunny summer days.
I've read a lot of articles about air conditioning in Springfield schools. Its time for district #186 to leap into the future by looking at geothermal units for the schools and do the kind of long term planning Porta is doing.
Comments
It seems to be so difficult to get any Springfield governmental body to think ahead about the future. I am currently attempting to work with SMTD for a better transit plan in Springfield, and most of the people there think I am talking about a couple of little changes here or there. The entire system needs to be overhauled, as it was first drawn out in the 1960s and has only had small changes since. The biggest change is that the frequency went from every 10 minutes to every 30 minutes at best. Springfield needs to think ahead about the future and prepare us for a huge energy crunch that is inevitable. Unfortunately, even at the university level, old habits die hard in Springfield. I just pray that someone wakes up and gets their head out of the sand.
Posted by: Steven Black | November 23, 2007 8:30 PM
Thanks for the comment Steven. SMTD does need big changes. Unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen until the Sangamon County Board starts making appointments of forward thinking people with the right kind of background instead of letting the two party chairs use the board as rewards for their political allies. There are good people on the SMTD board but they know a lot more about elections than public transportation.
Posted by: Will | November 26, 2007 5:30 PM