St. Regis Community Center goes 'green'
Solar Montana’s Mark Whitman, left, and Jack Isbell, prepare to take solar panels to the roof of the St. Regis Community Center. (Chuck Bandel/Mineral Independent)
The St. Regis Community Center is going “green” in a manner that could soon benefit all residents of the town of approximately 400 people.
Last week, workers from Solar Montana, a Helen-based solar energy company, installed a set of solar panels on the roof of the Center which will soon generate enough energy to meet the building’s electric energy needs.
With a huge boost from Northwest Energy and additional funds raised locally through various events like the annual Flea Market, bigger things are in the works.
The initial installation provides the Center with approximately 600 kilowatt hours of electricity via the roof mounted panels. That sun-produced production is enough, according to Solar Montana owner Jack Isbell, to power the average home.
Future expansion of the existing system, says the person in charge of the building’s maintenance and operations, St. Regis Community Council board member George Bailey, could increase solar production to one megawatt, enough to power 400 homes.
Those panels would be installed on land adjacent to the Center and backed by NW Energy. The whole project is part of the Montana Community Renewable Energy Project.
“We got the initial grant in September,” Bailey said. “The funds are part of the Northwest Renewable Energy Project. This initial phase (600kw) will provide as much power as we use for the Center. Future expansions could create a situation where we would be selling back to Northwest Energy what we don’t use, which would allow us to do more things that benefit the entire community.”
What is currently in use and that which is in the planning stages, Bailey said, will make the St. Regis facility the largest solar site of its kind in the entire state.
“This is the thing of the future,” he said. “We are happy to be part of it.”
Another future expansion, which Bailey said he hopes could begin as early as this spring, would utilize land on the other side of the Clark Fork River to create a solar generating facility with as much as 10 megawatts of power.
“This project really helps the whole community,” he said. “What we generate with the initial project alone will be paid back in two years, and the system comes with a 25-year warranty.”