Parents of Olympia high school and middle school informed us the students will continue remote learning this week. This comes after solar panels caught fire and a solar electrician had to come assist firefighters with a malfunctioning inverter.
“I am not a fan of a lot of the solar projects that go on because have very little return on investment,” said Jeanne Ives, a former Illinois State representative and ran for Governor of Illinois and for the US House.
Ives said people who decide to spend money on these project say, ‘The school will be supplied with power and any excess power can be sod back to the grid.’ And while that may be true, the solar is so intermittent and you don’t get power on all the time. And when that’s not happening you have back-up energy to make sure the school is functional. It is not productive for a school to go down the path of putting solar panels on the rooftops. And it is in fact dangerous,” said Ives.
Ives said the solar arrays are electrified and there’s not a lot of space in between the the arrays for firefighters to maneuver around them and not hit one.
Mt. Hope-Funks Grove Fire Department Chief Eric Fulk told WMBD that crews were able to keep it under control using fire extinguishers until a certified solar electrician arrived at the scene to disconnect a malfunctioning inverter from the solar panels.
“I don’t know why you would put this on top of a school when you want to keep kids safe?” said Ives.
According to documents obtained by BLNNews, Olympia bought 2,376 panels in 2016 and amended the agreement in 2017 for a total of $388,000.80.
The purchase order shows the Chinese solar panel manufacturer Jinko Solar priced each panel at about $160.
“Was it worth it in the end? With all that money they invested in putting up the solar panels, was it worth it? I am arguing it was not,” said Ives. “Is this worth the disruption in the learning? Is it worth the cost of redoing the gym or the inside of the school and the rooftop? This is a failed experiment.”
According to Illinois Report Card, Olympia high school under performs in math and English in comparison to state levels.
The students were all evacuated and were safe from the April 13 fire and crews were able to get the fire under control in 23 minutes.
The school posted on Facebook, OHS and OMS will continue remote learning during the week of the April 24 – 28.
Completely dangerous situation for firefighters. pic.twitter.com/zwrB8kujGT
— Jeanne Ives (@JeanneIves) April 14, 2023
It is unclear if the student will go back at all this year. Cities has place a call to the high school principal and is waiting on a call back.
This story is developing
