The sun’s rays will offset up to 18% of Riverside-Brookfield High School’s future power consumption needs with rooftop solar modules that are expected to be installed in 2026.
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Kristin Smetana, who made a presentation about the solar system at the April 8 District 208 school board meeting, said that 926 solar modules will be placed on racking rails to be installed in three primary locations on the school roof. They will capture sunlight that will result in direct-current (DC) power that will be converted by seven inverters to usable alternating-current (AC) power.
The project is expected to get under way in May 2026 and be completed the following August.
Most of the district’s upfront cost of $1.1 million will be offset by state, federal and ComEd incentives, with full return on investment in about five years. The ultimate cost to the district will be $74,849, Smetana told the board, which will be recovered by energy savings.
“After five years, it’s cost-neutral,” she said.
The district is currently in contract discussions with Verde Solutions, with completion of that and school board approval, possibly April 29, the night the new board will be installed. Verde Solutions, based in Chicago, was the winning firm of an RFP (request for proposals) that was issued by the district last October. Four companies submitted proposals.
One of the Verde Solutions engineers on the project will be a 2015 Riverside-Brookfield alumnus, Grace Rasmussen, a renewable energy engineer who has a mechanical engineering degree from Purdue. She’s stoked to be part of the installation at her alma mater, and added some reminders that she went there in a project presentation prior to Verde’s selection.
“It’s funny, because public schools put out notices, and we saw one,” Rasmussen said. “‘Oh my gosh I went there, how funny.’ We have a fairly small team, so I was going to work on (the project) already.
“I put together the presentation and found some photos from graduation. I havsome photos of me shaking hands with Dr. Smetana at graduation. At the time she was the principal.”
Rasmussen said the incentives are what make the project work for the district. ComEd will provide a check of $130,000 after the system is energized in August 2026. The federal investment tax credit, under the direct-pay program that’s part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, recently became available for non-taxable entities like school districts. That incentive totals out to $470,000, Rasmussen said.
Finally, the Illinois Power Administration program Illinois Shines incentivizes solar by paying entities like District 208 for generating solar power. According to Rasmussen, the total incentive there will be just under $500,000.
“Right now, Illinois is one of the hottest solar markets,” she said, adding she got into engineering after high school because she liked physics and math and was “interested in how things move.”
Smetana said the roots of the district’s solar effort began back in 2019, before the COVID pandemic. The solar landscape was markedly different back then.
“A lot of it was a purchased power,” she said. “The cost savings went to the company that installed (the system). The tax credits are now available for schools.”
She added that having Rasmussen in on the project is “really neat that it comes full circle.
“She did the presentation along with the CEO,” Smetana said. “I was surprised when she showed up … ‘Gosh that person looks so familiar.’ And when she did the presentation, I was like, I knew it. That was my first class where I was the principal of the building.”