The School District of La Crosse added its largest solar array October 2022 completion of a 130kw array.  Solar on La Crosse Schools helped realize this project (our largest to date) with private fundraising, grant writing and facilitating communication with the school district, solar installers and the community. 

Some project highlights include:

• 292 ZNShine solar panels producing 445 watts each, for a total of 130kW DC. 

• The system will offset nearly 30% of the building’s energy usage, including the energy used by the building’s geothermal heating and cooling pumps. 

• The system is expected to help the School District avoid nearly $500,000 in energy costs over its 25-year warranty period.

• The array will offset an amount of energy similar to that produced by burning just over 3 million pounds of coal. 

• The carbon offset will be roughly equivalent to planting 72,300 trees. 

The array was made possible by grants from the Couilliard Solar Foundation, the Midwest Renewable Energy Association, Hammond Climate Solutions, the La Crosse Community Foundation and Focus on Energy.  Additional funding was provided by private community donations through Solar on La Crosse Schools. 

Interconnection of the panels will happen on the next day without classes - October 17th. Shortly after that, students and visitors will be able to see live metering of the panels’ production on a screen near the building’s entrance.  Near the screen will be one of the same panels as those mounted on the roof for students to see, touch and learn about.