Tuesday, June 29, 2010
WARREN
Sometime late this year or early next year, Trumbull County is likely to become the first government body in the Mahoning Valley with a solar-energy collection system.
Trumbull County commissioners learned Tuesday that the county’s application for $300,000 in federal stimulus money to buy and install the system on the county’s Department of Job and Family Services building downtown has been formally approved.
Trish Nuskievicz, assistant director of the county’s planning commission, said she doesn’t know how much electricity the solar panels will generate or how much money these will save the county, but the benefits are not only financial.
Nuskievicz said she is hopeful that the local electrical workers union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which has also installed solar panels at its facility on Research Parkway in Champion, will be able to participate in the installation of the panels so that its members can obtain a solar power certification.
The experience of installing the system, being able to demonstrate it to other governments and businesses and the connection to the green-energy incubator planned for downtown Warren will hopefully help solar power “catch on,” Nuskievicz said.