Veregy -
May 28, 2009
Illinois school districts and college partner with CTS to secure grant for energy efficiency improvements
Spoon River College and the Teutopolis and Prairieview-Ogden School Districts have received grant awards from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation to fund energy savings projects in partnership with Control Technology and Solutions (CTS) which will design and install energy efficiency improvements for all three.
With energy prices rising, the schools’ administrators were confronting the difficult choice of re-allocating funds from educational programs to campus maintenance. The funding from the recently-awarded grants will now help them invest in energy saving improvements that will offset operating costs into the future.
“We were all facing a tough decision,” said Superintendent Dan Niemerg, Teutopolis Community Unit School District #50. “We want to put as much money as possible towards education, but we also have to pay the bills to keep the school running. This grant makes it possible for us to now fund both priorities.”
CTS is retrofitting all three schools’ current systems with new technology that will benefit the schools both financially and environmentally, including new ground source heat pump systems that are already under construction. The new systems are projected to save the Teutopolis School District nearly $25,000 a year and decrease annual fossil fuel emissions by 90 percent; the Prairieview-Ogden District nearly $33,000 a year and decrease annual fossil fuel emissions by 95 percent; and Spoon River College $13,000 a year and decrease fossil fuel emissions by 26 percent.
Ground source heat pump systems, also known as geoexchange, are the most environmentally clean and cost-effective space conditioning systems available, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Geoexchange systems use the earth’s renewable energy to provide heating in the winter and cooling in the summer with energy consumption 25 to 40 percent less than traditional oil, gas and electric heat pump systems. Because geoexchange systems do not burn fossil fuels, they reduce greenhouse gas and other air emissions while eliminating a cause of carbon monoxide inside the structures where they are used.
“School districts and colleges across Illinois are increasingly looking for energy-saving solutions,” said Bob Bennett, Managing Partner of CTS. “By working together with partners like Teutopolis and Prairieview-Ogden School Districts and Spoon River College, CTS is able to develop tailored programs that meet their operating goals.”