Seven Oaks Farm breaks ground on the installation of its first solar power project
PRESS RELEASE December 02, 2013 | By: Realgy, LLC
Seven Oaks Farm, Saint Charles, Ill., will soon be partially powered by a 160 solar panel PV system.
Realgy, LLC has announced the start of installation on a 37.5 kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic (PV) system for Seven Oaks Farm. The solar PV system will be the second of its kind installed by Realgy in Saint Charles, the first being Midwest Groundcovers in 2011. Seven Oaks Farm is a historic dairy and horse farm owned by Deborah and Helmut Jahn since 1998.
The solar PV system is being installed by Renewable Energy Alternatives of Northbrook, Illinois. This is the first solar project that Renewable Energy Alternatives has completed for Seven Oaks Farm “We are excited to be a part of this venture,” said Kacie Peters, Director of Sales and Marketing at Renewable Energy Alternatives. “The array is in a very public space and will be seen by thousands annually. We hope that this array will inspire others to know solar is possible—and practical in Illinois.”
Realgy, LLC is an alternative energy service supplier in Illinois, and will be supplying Seven Oaks Farm their electricity and selected them for this installation. Seven Oaks Farm will receive all of the solar energy produced by the panels, which will reduce their reliance on fossil generated energy produced primarily from coal in Illinois.
Once complete the Seven Oaks Farm solar PV system will produce over 49, 000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy annually and more than one million kWh over the next 25 years. That is enough energy to power about 2 average U.S. homes every year. The environmental benefits associated with the system will offset about 900 thousand pounds of carbon dioxide over the initial 25 years of operation.
“We are excited to announce the start of the Seven Oaks solar project,” said Michael Vrtis, President of Realgy. “Realgy made this investment as a part of our sustainable energy commitment and due to the support of Illinois Department of commerce Renewable Energy Program and the ISEA.”
Contacts:
Seven Oaks Farm
36W788 Red Gate Road
Saint Charles, Illinois 60175
630-762-9563
Renewable Energy Alternatives
Kacie Peters
3670 Commercial Avenue
Northbrook, Illinois
847-291-7693
www.renewableenergyalt.com
Realgy, LLC
Nicole Werner
675 Oakwood Avenue
West Hartford, CT
860-233-2270
www.realgyenergyservices.com
No buyer’s remorse with Realgy Energy Services, We are and remain below ComEd’s pricing
According to the Illinois Commerce Commission, ComEd’s energy price is projected to drop to around 5.55 cents per kilowatt-hour, from the current 8.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, that is a 2.75 cent decrease. The ComEd energy price includes the costs of transmitting electricity from power plants over high-voltage lines to the local distribution system.
Contracts municipal politicians and officials in 15 towns negotiated with power suppliers more than a year ago, to lower residents’ electricity bills, will soon exceed the costs ComEd customers pay starting in June.
The price being paid by most residents in Oak Park, which has an energy-supply contract with Integrys Energy Services Inc. until December 2013, is 5.79 cents per kilowatt-hour, 4 percent higher than the projected ComEd charge.
However this is not the case with Realgy Energy Services, they have been and remain below ComEd’s Pricing.
In northern Illinois, all customers pay ComEd to deliver their electricity but are free to choose a supplier to provide the electricity itself. The cost of electricity typically accounts for about two-thirds of an electric bill while delivery charges make up the rest.
Read the whole story Some suburban electricity deals to be costlier than ComEd
Why you should toss those old incandescent holiday lights
For most people the holidays mean time-honored traditions. But this year toss out some of those traditions by tossing out those old incandescent lights in favor of newer LEDs which consume less energy and cost even less to operate.
Older strings of incandescent lights can use up to 99% more energy than new LED light strings. In addition, LEDs are much cooler than their traditional incandescent counterparts, reducing the risk of combustion.
A string of new LED lights could last up to 40 seasons and since they are made with epoxy lenses instead of glass as are most traditional incandescent light strings, they are more resilient to damage.
As an extra bonus you can connect up to 25 strings of LED lights together end-to-end and not worry about overloading a wall socket.
If you are still not convinced that it is time to upgrade your holiday lights, check out these figures from energy.gov.
Estimated cost* of electricity to light a six-foot tree for 12 hours a day for 40 days
| Incandescent C-9 lights | $10.00 |
| LED C-9 lights | $0.27 |
| Incandescent Mini-lights | $2.74 |
| LED Mini-lights | $0.82 |
Estimated cost* of buying and operating lights for 10 holiday seasons
| Incandescent C-9 lights | $122.19 |
| LED C-9 lights | $17.99 |
| Incandescent Mini-lights | $55.62 |
| LED Mini-lights | $33.29 |
*Assumes 50 C-9 bulbs and 200 mini-lights per tree, with electricity at $0.119 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) (AEO 2012 Residential Average). Prices of lights based on quoted prices for low volume purchases from major home improvement retailers. All costs have been discounted at an annual rate of 5.6%. Life span assumed to be three seasons (1,500 hours) for non-LED lights.
Source:
Energy.gov, LED Lighting