St. Tammany turns to solar power at 2 parish buildings

Solar energy is now powering two St. Tammany Parish buildings, thanks to a federal grants.

The buildings are a pavilion at the parish headquarters on Koop Drive, and the caretaker's cottage at Camp Salmen Nature Parkin Slidell.

The solar panels and monitoring equipment have only been in place for about a month, but the early signs, according to parish leaders, point to success.

"It appears to be generating at least as much energy as we projected, if not more," said St. Tammany administrator Gina Campo.

The money for the panels came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, stimulus money from the U.S. Department of Energy, with a goal of reducing energy usage and improving energy efficiency.

"It's been a huge, huge learning experience for everybody in all the parish departments," Campo said of the solar panel project and other aspects of the federal loan.

Campo expects that in roughly 10 years, the solar panels will repay the federal investment with energy savings.

As part of the grant, St. Tammany Parish did an energy survey of all parish facilities to gauge where money could be saved.

"It'll give us, as part of our planning process going forward, the knowledge that we've gained about how we can do things to use less energy and to save dollars for the taxpayers," Campo said.

The wall-mounted monitor is located inside the parish headquarters, and is accessible to the public during normal business hours.

It has a touch screen display that explains how the solar energy is generated and collected, and it keeps real time readings of how much energy has been collected by the solar panels.