GLEN CARBON – The sun is shining for homeowners and commercial property owners across Madison County, as the Solarize Madison County/Glen Carbon program commences this March. The program allows individual home and commercial property owners to access lower prices for solar installations through the power of volume purchasing.
The Village of Glen Carbon and Madison County Sustainability Program together have supported a stand-alone bulk solar group purchase program for residents and businesses in Madison County. This program will reduce carbon emissions while providing residents with the opportunity to invest in their own high quality renewable energy solar installation with potentially significant savings on installation cost and energy bills.
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“I am thrilled we are working with residents, businesses, farms, and other organizations throughout Madison County in order to save them money on solar installations and their utility bills, while also helping the environment in the process,” said Madison County Sustainability Coordinator Kim Petzing.
The program is administered by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) at no cost to the village or the county. Lewis and Clark Community College is a partner of the program, supporting outreach efforts at local power hours. This type of program has been successful in other jurisdictions in Illinois, as seen in Urbana-Champaign, Bloomington-Normal, and the Village of Godfrey.
“We’re very excited to build on our recent success of group purchasing programs around Illinois with Solarize Madison County/Glen Carbon,” said Peter Murphy, Solar Program Manager at MREA. “The support of the Village of Glen Carbon, Madison County Sustainability Program, and Glen Carbon Cool Cities Committee is invaluable to helping increase solar adoption locally.”
Through a competitive public bid process, St. Louis-based solar installation firm, StraightUp Solar, has been selected to be the program’s installer of choice. StraightUp Solar was the selected installer for the Godfrey program as well. The final decision whether to contract a solar installation is that of the home or commercial property owner. The Village of Glen Carbon and Madison County have no legal responsibility or hold any liability for the performance of any contract between StraightUp Solar and residents or businesses in Madison County. The company will be required to follow the Village of Glen Carbon Building Code if a resident/business is located in the Village of Glen Carbon.
StraightUp Solar is fully-licensed turnkey solar energy integrator, bringing ?the experience of ?more than 10 years and 700 locally-installed solar energy projects to the Solarize Madison County/Glen Carbon program.
“StraightUp Solar exists for one reason: to ?inspire? a Solar Tribe to create a sustainable world,” said Mike Hornitschek, Director of Strategic Development for StraightUp Solar. “Solarize Madison County/Glen Carbon is an exciting opportunity for us to leverage our Illinois group solar leadership position to bring the benefits of high-quality, low-cost sustainable energy to Madison County and empower program participants save money on their utility bills for the next 25+ years.”
Over the next few months, MREA will provide free, public, one-hour long educational sessions called Solar Power Hours for prospective participants to learn how solar energy works and to answer questions. The program’s website includes a sign-up form, which will be used to announce Solar Power Hour sessions: SolarizeMCGC.com. The first of these sessions will take place on March 14, 2017, at the Glen Carbon Police Department Community Room at 6 p.m.
If you have additional questions, please contact Peter Murphy, Solar Program Manager at Midwest Renewable Energy Association at (414) 988-7963 orpeterm@midwestrenew.org.
The MREA was incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in 1990. MREA’s mission is to promote renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable living through education and demonstration. To learn more, call 715-592-6595 or visit www.midwestrenew.org or www.TheEnergyFair.org.
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