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Trinity High School in River Forest recently began installing solar panels on the school’s roof in a project that is expected to generate more than 70% of its electrical power needs once operational.
Cranes lifted the panels Oct. 18 onto the school’s roof, where workers installed them into brackets. The installation is expected to take about eight weeks to complete, and school officials said the panels are expected to last around 25 years.
Tina Taylor-Ritzler, Trinity’s president, said the project aligns with the school’s wider mission.
“This idea is a response to meet the goal of our stewardship of our Earth,” she said.
The $1.5 million project was funded through a power purchase agreement through Dewan Solar, an organization that helps nonprofit organizations, such as schools, transition to solar energy. Energy rates differ based on the time of year and how much energy is used, but over the next 15 years, Trinity will pay Dewan at a low fixed rate from its energy consumption from the panels, Taylor-Ritzler said, and after that time period, the panels will be turned over to Trinity.
The partnership operates at the federal and state level which allows Dewan to regain some of its investments to use for future solar projects, officials said.
The project at Trinity, an all-girls Roman Catholic school, ties into the church’s global initiatives to embrace environmental justice. It adopts Pope Francis’ papal encyclical titled Laudato Si’ that was written in 2015, which addresses environmentalism and climate change, Taylor-Ritzler said.
The panel installation also aligns with a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal promoting affordable and clean energy, Taylor-Ritzler said, making it the right time to put the panels in.
“For the shared mission, shared commitment to sustainable development and to environmental justice, all of that together is why we partnered with Dewan, and Dewan has been taking care of all of those details for us,” Taylor-Ritzler said.
Over its expected 25-year lifetime, Trinity’s solar system is expected to prevent 18.4 million pounds of carbon emission, which is equivalent to taking over 1,100 cars off of the road or planting over 274,000 trees to cleanse the air, officials said.
Taylor-Ritzler is currently in her second school year of presidency at Trinity and was only in the role for about six months when she signed the agreement for the installation last December. She saw the project as a way to participate in a “more just and humane world for all of us to live in together.”
She worked with Gary Cuneen, the founder and executive director of Seven Generations Ahead, another nonprofit that works with local government, community and private sector leaders to help communities make environmental changes.
“It’s been really a joyful start to my presidency to find like-minded partners, to find people who want to work together and to do something really exciting for this community and for our shared home, planet Earth,” Taylor-Ritzler said.
chardy@chicagotribune.com
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