Introducing the Winnshiek Solar Energy Map!
Note: This guest post was written by Luke Stennes, a WED summer intern in 2013.
My name is Luke Stennes and I’ve been working as an intern with the Winneshiek Energy District for the summer. I applied for the position because I did not know very much at all about sustainable energy, and I wanted to increase that knowledge by getting involved in the community. The objective of my position was to learn as much about solar energy in the county as I could by going and actually speaking to community members. I had an extremely positive experience talking to the community. Every person I talked to was very passionate on the subject.
In speaking to home and business owners throughout my internship, I encountered the same phrase over and over again: “Going solar was just a no-brainer!” Far and away the most common reason that people have chosen to install solar-PV systems is the “no-brainer” economics. Both the lower-than-ever cost of solar cells paired with the generous rebate from Alliant Energy (that only lasts until the end of 2013!) have resulted in many install systems with complete payoffs of under 10 years.
I was around Winneshiek County all summer talking to people about their solar experience, and there are still many more people that I missed due to the sheer amount of solar we have here. The information I did gather can be view on an online map we’re calling the Winneshiek Solar Energy Map.
This online map provides a comprehensive and ever growing picture of the solar-PV installations throughout our county. The goal is to highlight installed solar arrays throughout Winneshiek County along with some basic information for each system all in an accessible Google-maps style format. We hope this will be an excellent educational opportunity for viewers to discover more about solar capabilities and usage throughout the county and especially useful for those curious about investing in solar energy. The more information we can get on to the map, the better information we will all have on our solar energy usage.
As a home or business owner who has installed solar panels, adding your system to the map is as easy as creating a free account on the tools.energydistrict.org website! Once that step is completed, simply click on the “add system” link located on our homepage and fill out the form to add your system to the community map. Your involvement in our map educates the community, connects homeowners and businesses, and shows how much renewable energy is being used throughout the county. Thanks for participating!