Donations fund Sturgeon Bay school's solar panels

From an article by Samantha Hernandez in the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

The Sturgeon Bay School Board has received a donation from Sturgeon Bay Utilities to help offset the costs of the district's new solar panels.

The board accepted the grants Wednesday from Jim Stawicki, SBU general manager.

Stawicki, acting as a representative for both Sturgeon Bay Utilities and Wisconsin Public Power Inc., presented the two grants, from WPPI for $25,000 and one from SBU for $19,000.

The district also received a grant for about $20,000 from Wisconsin Focus on Energy.

The grants will be used to offset the costs of the district's solar panels, the monitoring system, and the new touch-screen kiosk in the front entrance of the high school. The kiosk allows users to view various statistics that pertain to the solar panels including the amount of energy produced and a diagram of the panels.

The panels were installed in March on the roof of the high school, said Russ Cross, district manager of buildings and grounds.

There are two rows of solar panels, 22 in all, and each panels has 60 photovoltaic cells. The panels are visible from Michigan Street, which runs past the high school.

Cross is not certain how much the panels will save the school in the long run.

"It's hard to speculate. The amount of power it's supposed to generate (is) roughly equivalent to powering two average-size homes for a year," Cross said.