Last month a town hall meeting was held in Urbana concerning the benefits of the Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. The long range goal of CEJA is to slash climate-warming carbon pollution by requiring Illinois to move to a 100% carbon-free power sector by 2045, making Illinois the first Midwestern state to do so.
The major question, of course, is how do we get there. Danville Area Community College Alternate Energy instructor Greg Hansbrough says one important factor is to not only emphasize solar energy development, and not only emphasize wind energy development, but to continue emphasizing advancement in both of them.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: Back in 2009 – 2010, a lot of major companies, they were selling off their solar farms to invest heavily in wind. For about the last year or so, the new buzzword is combined renewables. So, a lot of companies have figured out that solar is still a very viable option. So, when they have land where they have some wind farms, they can also incorporate some solar farms; in the same area or definitely in the near area.
Of course a major factor here is encouraging land use for further development of renewable energy facilities; and giving farmland owners different options on how they can get involved and benefit from it, in dealing with major companies or educational institutions.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: You have some land available that can put up some solar; you can use 40% of that electricity, and then the rest would get purchased into the grid. Or you can just totally own it. As far as the community goes, the community would benefit. (Such as) you have a large enough farm to get your needs, and then that would also feed in the grid.
Hansbrough says, the Alternative Energy program at DACC is designed to produce students that can go right to work in this field.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: We’re getting more demand, people contacting us looking for our graduates to work in the combined renewables field. Some are looking for strictly solar, some are looking for strictly wind. There’s definitely a combination now of a demand for solar and wind. (And) other valuable means as well; natural gas or aqua turbines.
Hansbrough says landowners wanting more information about getting involved should contact Enel (Shad Little; 478-604-6733) or DM3 Powersystems (Michael Matheson; 402-499-4465).
Students wanting more on DACC’s program can go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZBh1zx1Z94
