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City officials will host a “Solarbration” ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Thursday to officially cut the ribbon on the new rooftop solar system on the Robert Crown Community Center, 1801 Main St., a project years in the making that aims to reduce the building’s energy emissions by producing energy on-site.
The new system covers the Crown center’s rooftop in photovoltaic solar panels, which are owned and operated by Chicago-based contractor Verde Solutions. The city will purchase the generated electricity from Verde under a “power purchase agreement” for the next 20 years, with options to extend the deal or buy the system from Verde outright.
Thursday’s event will mark the end of a long process to put solar panels on top of the center. The earliest origin point is the 2018 Climate Action and Resilience Plan, which calls for all city operations to reach carbon neutrality by 2035. To this end, city officials and outside partners completed a “Zero Emissions Strategy” in August 2021, which the City Council adopted in March 2022.
The report listed “onsite renewable energy” production as one of its nine key strategies for reaching carbon neutrality and estimated city-owned rooftops “could possibly generate up to 4.6 million kilowatt hours” of electricity each year. It didn’t list any specific buildings as ideal candidates for solar, but by August 2023 city staff posted a request for proposals for a solar power purchase agreement at the center.
“Ultimately, the City’s goal is to both reduce its metered energy consumption from the local electric utility, and to lower its energy costs by entering into a contract” with the winning firm, the RFP stated. “The City looks to lead by example through demonstrating the feasibility of meaningful solar PV [photovoltaic] projects within the City.”
Three firms sent in proposals, and Verde was awarded the contract in February 2024. Besides advancing the city’s climate goals, the deal will also save money on energy costs: the city pays nothing for installation or maintenance, and the locked-in price of 3.95 cents per kilowatt hour beat the 5.25-cent rate the city paid at the time for energy from the grid.
It still took another year and a half for construction to start in September 2025, which involved cranes lifting materials up to the Crown Center’s roof. The city’s construction notice gave updated estimates for the system’s impact: its 1.25 million kilowatt-hour annual output will offset about a third of the building’s annual energy consumption, and the reduced cost will save the city more than $3.1 million over its full 30-year lifespan.
“Ice rinks and the ice machinery take a heck of a lot of energy,” said Councilmember Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th Ward) in a discussion of the system last month. “So that’s enough solar panels for probably 300 houses.”
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Alex Harrison reports on local government, public safety, housing and homelessness, town-gown relations and more for the RoundTable. He graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism… More by Alex Harrison
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The Evanston RoundTable is the community’s leading source of news about local government, schools, civic and artistic activities, and other important issues facing our city. We seek to foster civic engagement and empower people to address complex issues facing our diverse community, promoting a better understanding and appreciation of people of all races, ethnicities, and income levels.
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