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ReStore News

The ReStore has gone solar!

When the ReStore expansion project was being planned, forward-thinking staff and board members envisioned utilizing solar energy at some point in our future and designed the building to be compatible with an installation when the time was right.

That time is now.

In 2019, about a year after opening the expansion, we began partnering with the Ecology Action Center, Mid Central Community Action, and the West Bloomington Revitalization Project to provide solar education to the community.

Through this community partnership we learned that Habitat McLean County's ReStore was eligible for an Illinois Solar for All project to add a solar array on the roof. The project was laid out and managed by the Bloomington office of Straight Up Solar.

Installation of the 65kw array began on April 12, 2021. We estimate the solar array will meet up to 85% of the ReStore's energy needs. The project is complete and we're now producing our own energy! The solar array is projected to save our affiliate $154,000 in energy costs over the next 25 years.

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