Developer behind new solar farm in west Rockford gifts $85K to Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity

ROCKFORD — The developer behind a 35-acre solar farm on the city’s west side has gifted Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity with $85,000 to support its mission to build affordable homes for families in need.

Trajectory Energy Partners presented the check to the nonprofit on Wednesday inside a nearly completed Habitat home in the Emerson Estates Subdivision off North Springfield Avenue near Auburn High School. The money was the final portion of $100,000 Trajectory Energy pledged to the nonprofit as part of its application to develop the solar farm.

“One thing we love about Habitat for Humanity is they don’t just build people homes, but they work with families to learn how to manage their finances, how to navigate other programs to help them with car loans or utility bills,” said Jon Carson, managing partner of Trajectory Energy Partners. “So they were a natural partner for working with families to subscribe to these projects as well.”

Installation of the 20,000-panel Rock Cut Solar farm, which is near the corner of Mila Avenue and North Memorial Boulevard west of Springfield Avenue, is complete. The final connections are being made now with the solar array expected to go online this summer.

Community solar projects such as Rock Cut Solar allow residents and businesses to subscribe to benefit from energy savings generated by the solar array, which is connected to the ComEd grid. ComEd pays for the energy generated in the solar field and subscribers receive a portion of the dollar value generated as a credit.

In this project, 20% of the capacity is reserved for families to receive a 50% discount on the solar credits.

“A larger family might save $300-$400 a month off a high utility bill. Others, $100-$200 depending on the size of the usage,” Carson said.

Once it’s generating energy, the solar farm will benefit several families living in Habitat homes. Habitat has been working with its new homeowners to subscribe to the community solar program.

“At the end of the day our goal is to build safe, affordable, healthy housing,” said Keri Asevedo, executive director of Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity. “Affordability doesn’t just mean having a 0% interest mortgage and less than 30% monthly gross income mortgage payments. That also means ensuring that they can save money by just living in this property.”

Several homes in Habitat’s development are powered by geothermal wells, drawing energy Earth’s core for efficient heating and cooling. Since the homes are 100% electric power, the savings from the energy credits can be even larger for Habitat’s homeowners, Asevedo said.

“We know taxes are going to change. We certainly know homeowner’s insurance is going to change. But we know isn’t going to change is their cost of utilities because we have an opportunity to partner on this solar projects,” Asevedo said.

Source: Rock River Current