Moniteau DME

CHERRY TWP — After about two years of working with environmental design firm BAI Group, Moniteau School District’s solar panel project is nearly complete.

The project involves about 4,000 solar panels and was executed at no cost to the district.

At a school board meeting Monday, Jeff Campbell, director of buildings and grounds, said he hopes the solar panels installed at Dassa McKinney Elementary School and Moniteau Jr./Sr. High School will be generating power within the next 30 days.

He said he will meet Wednesday with representatives from West Penn Power to discuss a transformer tie-in.

After the meeting, Campbell said finishing touches for the high school involve installing a meter cluster to keep track of the electricity generated by the panels.

“It’s exciting to be at the end of this,” Campbell said.

“It’ll save the district money not just today, but also in the next 30 years,” he added. “And it cost us nothing.”

Through the district’s partnership with BAI Group, the project was funded by federal tax credits, Campbell said in August.

The project also involved the replacement of the high school roof, which needed to be dealt with before the solar panels could be installed. The project saved the district $2.1 million with the installation of the new roof.

In August, former board director Michael Baptiste said the solar panels would save the district about $125,000 a year in electricity costs.