Solar Panel Recommendations for Juda School District

Presently, Juda School District, a small school in southern Wisconsin, receives a small amount of energy from renewable energy sources while having a large scale utility company,
Alliant Energy, supply the rest. The schools current renewable energy source consists of a 36
panel solar system which offsets the schools energy usage by between 4.5% and 5.5% each year.
In order to increase the school’s commitment to sustainability, the school has created a program
called the Green Initiative. One aspect of this program is to decrease the schools reliability on
non-renewable sources of energy as well as to increase the overall efficiency of the school.
The goal of this project sought to research and analyze a solar energy system that would
increase the schools energy independence while also being the most sustainable option in terms
of environment, economics, and social. Each system was analysed by its inputs and outputs
which included emissions, cost, manufacturing materials, end of life, and energy output. These
categories of inputs and outputs were defined by the scope of the project, as other inputs and
outputs would need significantly more analysis. The scope of this project also included a final
recommendation of manufacturing company, and installation company that would meet the
School’s Green Initiative goals.
Previous literature pointed to the result that systems made of mono-crystal solar cells had
higher efficiency rates in terms of energy absorption, and conversion than those made of
poly-crystal solar cells. Previous literature also concluded that recycling solar panels at the
panels end of life proved difficult due to hazardous materials and metals used to manufacture the
panels.
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Comparison of manufacturing companies showed that Sunpower fulfill

Read the final student report delivered to the local gov/community partner.

UniverCity Year Contact Info
Gavin Luter
Managing Director
gavin@cows.org
608-261-1141

University Faculty Contact
Andrea Hicks
Civil and Environmental Engineering

hicks5@wisc.edu

Local Government / Community Contact
Scott Anderson

Teacher at Juda School