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Pic of the day: Kentucky Coal Museum installing solar panels to save on electricity bills
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BENHAM, Ky. —Inside the Kentucky Coal Museum, visitors can peruse plenty of memorabilia on mining and the commonwealth's coal camps. But on the roof, they'll find a display dedicated to an unexpected industry: Solar power.
In a cost-saving move, this museum in eastern Kentucky is embracing the sun as a source of affordable energy and installing approximately 80 solar panels on its roof.
Tre' Sexton said he was surprised when his company, Bluegrass Solar, was approached about the project. If there was one building in eastern Kentucky that wouldn't have a solar-power system, you'd think it would be the coal museum, he said.
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“Really the first time that I sat down and was talking about it with everybody, I was like...are you for real? They’re really going to go for this?” Sexton said. “I mean, that would be like showing up at a bank and they ask you if you’d mind taking some of this money out of the vault.”
But putting solar panels on top of the coal museum makes sense economically, Sexton said. Public attractions like this one can't be profitable if they're dealing with expensive electric bills every month. And people in eastern Kentucky are becoming more interested in alternative energy options.
“It’s like, 'This might be coal country, but I cannot afford $600 a month.' And that’s for a home," he said. "If it’s a business, God be with them, (the bills are) in the thousands.”
Bluegrass Solar and an Indiana-based company called Star Solar are working together on the project, according to a news release from Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, the museum's owner. The coal museum's electric bill typically costs about $2,100 per month, but this initiative is expected to save between $8,000 and $10,000 a year.
About 50 solar panels already have been installed on the museum's roof, Sexton said. Once the rest are in place, the system should be able to generate about 60 kilowatts of electricity when it's running at maximum capacity.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/04/08/even-kentucky-coal-museum-going-solar/100205662/
