The panels at Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center will finally be providing power, with the arrival of a necessary part.
Terry Dvorak of Red Lion Solar noted that the panels, while up, have not provided power collection because of a missing part.
“We have been waiting for an electrical panel to connect those panels for over a year,” Dvorak said. “We finally have the part in hand now.”
Dvorak said that he is planning for a day of outage at the Buresh Center sometime around the Fourth of July to install the necessary part. The power outage could be briefer than a full day, but the hope was to find a day with minimal interruption. After installing that part, it will be another month before it is finally okayed by Alliant Energy.
“Intent was to have this up and running within the past year, but aside from a missing part, wasn’t able to get there,” Dvorak said. “Parts that took three weeks in the past are now taking 50 weeks, which is frustrating. At least you got the benefit of the shade for the past year.”
Dvorak also gave an update on other solar panels in the city.
The City has solar panels installed at the Mount Vernon City Hall, which has been offsetting energy costs of roughly $5,000 per year. The city could buy the panels for $52,000 as they have been there for five years. Dvorak said that would take 10 years for the panels to pay for themselves, as they generate $5,000 in savings per year to energy costs.
The police station panels are up and running, with those being connected roughly in the past month and a half.