TOWER— The Tower Economic Development Authority and the Vermilion Country School have teamed up on a project to install a 40-kilowatt, grid-connected, solar power array on the roof of the school.
Using a $61,634 grant through the Minnesota Department of Commerce, TEDA and the school will be working with Sisu Solar, an Iron Range-based installer to purchase and install the photovoltaic panels. The project is expected to save the school several thousand dollars a year on its power bills, and those savings will be tallied and earmarked for student-directed projects in the community.
The project is one of dozens of projects to install solar arrays on public buildings throughout the state. Much of the funding for the program came from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act. The program has since been slated by the Trump administration to be discontinued at the end of the year.
The University of Minnesota has also provided a $20,000 grant to assist with planning for the project. Initially, school officials were involved in developing a much larger project, but funding that would have made that possible was eliminated more quickly by the new administration. School officials are now looking for funding to install battery storage within the school, which would increase the financial savings from the solar array.
The solar panels have been purchased from Sisu Solar and the array is expected to be installed in the spring of 2026.