New Website Tracks Solar Panel Energy Use

Folks can now see how the solar panels at Momauguin, Deer Run and Overbrook elementary schools are working out via a website created by the administration. Panels were also installed on the Joseph Melillo Middle School roof but that online data is not yet up, as it was the last building of the four to be completed.

The idea for installing energy-savings panels was a hot-button issue among politicos and the dispute never quite quelled even after the project was done. Critics claimed it was a waste of money, while supporters maintained it would save money by using less electricity.

At meeting, for instance, members got an update on the panels' progress. School Building Commissioner Tony DeMayo, an advocate of the project who attended the meeting, told finance board member Doc Schlegel, who had questioned the panels' efficacy, it was a "labor of love" for many and defended the project.

Schlegel said his daughter who works in energy conservation in Vermont told him "that solar panels are the least cost-effective way of reducing energy costs."

When Mayor April Capone Almon ceremoniously flipped the switch on the panels at Overbrook last December, Councilman Joe Badamo told Patch, "Some of the people on the Town Council were dead set against this. We had to fight hard. It took a lot of work. It took a lot of convincing."

DeMayo, Schlegel, Badamo and other proponents and opponents can now see for themselves how the panels are panning out.  Click here to view the energy charts.