After eight years of planning, the Athens County Public Libraries system plans on finally flipping the switch.
On Aug. 13, the Athens Public Library Branch, in the city of Athens at 30 Home St., will have 224 solar panels on its roof, providing electricity to help keep the building running. The panels will produce about 75,240 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity, according to a library news release.
Library spokeswoman Jenaye Antonuccio said that will account for about one third of the building's energy needs, including most of the library’s computers and lights.
Library officials have eyed solar panels since a new addition to the library was built in 2005, but funding was always the main obstacle, Antonuccio said, adding that two anonymous donors made the project, the first of its kind in southeast Ohio, possible.
Athens-based Third Sun Solar designed and installed the solar panels, according to the release.
The library is adding the solar panels to keep up with the global rhetoric of a more environmentally friendly society, Antonuccio said. Solar energy accounts for 48 percent of new electric systems installed nationwide in the first fiscal quarter of 2013.
"Simply put, solar energy is a good way to protect the earth and protect our future," she said.
sh335311@ohiou.edu
