Northwest Suburban High School District 214 school board members Thursday inked a deal to place solar panels atop Rolling Meadows High School, amid looming expiration of federal incentives and rising energy costs from the standard grid.
The school could offset 65% of its annual electricity usage, officials estimate, which is higher than an earlier 37% projection when they began exploring the possibility last fall.
Superintendent Scott Rowe — who oversaw installation of solar panels at his last district, Huntley Community School District 158, in 2019 and 2020 — suggested District 214’s five other high schools and district headquarters could get panels in the future, too.
“If we might be able to get more from our coverage than we originally thought, there is an opportunity for us to continue exploring this,” Rowe said. “This is an area that we should continue exploring and pushing the boundaries on. … We can just lock in and reduce our bill, so that way our dollars can go toward the actual learning.”
Under a so-called power purchase agreement approved Thursday night, Chicago-based Verde Solutions will install the solar arrays at no upfront cost, while offering the district a fixed rate for solar power over 25 years.
The district is currently paying a little under 8 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity, but will pay about half that — just under 4 cents per kWh — with solar.
Technically, that’s $0.078 per kWh on the grid, versus $0.0379 per kWh for solar.
It translates to a $3.4 million savings over the 25-year contract, based on current rates and assuming future adjustments for inflation, according to consultant Nania Energy Advisors.
Becky Thompson, a senior energy adviser at Nania, which also advises the school district on its electricity and natural gas purchases, said solar presents a stabilized cost that will allow officials to budget year over year, while grid power continues to go up considerably.
“I’m in the market every single day watching energy prices,” Thompson said. “With data center integration, electrification of vehicles, manufacturing moving to automated systems, currently our demand is outpacing our supply, which is really the simplest way to explain why energy prices continue to go up.”
While the district and its consultant have been exploring solar for about a year, officials are now staring down a deadline to capture federal incentives before they expire.
Solar installations need to be done by the end of 2027 to take advantage of the incentives, officials said.
After putting a request for proposals out on the street in October, five solar vendors submitted plans and were ranked by a district evaluation team according to price, technical qualifications and experience. The top three were invited for interviews in December.
Verde, the recommended installer, was founded in 2012 by Christopher Gersch, who is a 2000 Rolling Meadows High School graduate.
Aaron Raftery, a solar expert with Nania, said that connection didn’t factor into the selection team’s scoring criteria. Verde has done 2,800 projects across 48 states, including a few schools in Illinois, some municipal governments, and many commercial projects, Raftery said.
The solar arrays, which are owned by Verde, will be installed on a racking system atop a slip sheet roof membrane. The panels won’t be anchored to the school roof, so there is no impact on the roof warranty, Raftery said.
It’s a 59-week installation process, from engineering to when the system can be turned on. That’s expected before school starts in fall 2027.
As part of the contract, Verde will offer six annual student internships over five years, a 10-year scholarship program, and other learning experiences at the school.

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