John McIntire Library Saving Money and Energy with Solar Panels

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Muskingum County Library System is saving energy one solar panel at a time.

With a roofing project that lasted several months, the John McIntire Library also installed solar panels to their roof. The solar panels were added to the facility in July, and took three weeks to complete. Executive Director of the Muskingum County Library System, Jennifer Spillman said with the addition of the panels they are being fiscally responsible with bills and helping the environment at the same time.

“The purpose of the solar panels are to basically provide a way for the library to be fiscally responsible when it comes to utility bills. Not only are we saving money on utility bills long term, but we are actually harnessing energy to put back to the grids so other people can use that energy as well,” she said.

Over the past two months, the library has saved $1,100, 38,000 pounds of CO2 emissions, and planted the equivalent of 970 trees. Spillman said the library system’s board is very “forward thinking.” And with emerging technology, the library aims to be the leading innovators within the community.

“The John McIntire Library is in a real central location, so a lot of people see the solar panels, a lot people question it and wonder ‘hey, look what the library’s doing, why are they doing that?’ So we’re able to share the reasons why, how much it saves us in utility bills, we’re extremely fiscally responsible with this decision. It is good for the environment, it’s good for Zanesville, and it’s good for Ohio,” she said.

Spillman said if renovation is needed within the other branches, they will consider solar panels for their facilities as well. If you would like an update on how much energy the library is saving, a live feed of the solar array is on the library system’s website, www.muskingumlibrary.org.