New Solar Panels Will Help Shinnecock Preschool Become Sustainable

Workers from SUNation Solar Systems of Ronkonkoma carried 39 solar panels to the roof of the Wuneechanunk Shinnecock Preschool on Monday, October 25, where they were attached to a network of frames and connecting wires. By midafternoon, when the work was complete, and the system turned on, the school began producing an estimated 90 to 95 percent of its electricity while saving, at current rates, about $3,000 a year.

The project was a collaboration between the Shinnecock Indian Nation, the Long Island Progressive Coalition, and SUNation’s nonprofit division, SUNation Cares, which installs several systems each year free of charge for needy families or nonprofits like the school, according to the company’s chief executive officer, Scott Maskin.

While in most cases, the company installs repurposed systems that have been replaced by customers looking to upgrade, the system installed on the school was brand new and was valued at approximately $50,000, Maskin added.

The 12.29 kilowatt system is expected to generate 15,269 kilowatt hours of electricity per year.

The idea of installing solar panels on the school, which opened in 2015, came out of an Energy and Social Justice Workshop organized by the Long Island Progressive Coalition with members of the Shinnecock Nation in 2019, said Ryan Madden of LIPC. The topic of that workshop was New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which seeks to combat the impact of climate change in vulnerable communities.

Tribal Chairman Bryan Polite, who like other tribal leaders stopped by to check on the progress, said the installation was an example of how the tribe could work toward energy self-sufficiency. He said the tribe could earmark funds it received from the American Rescue Plan Act to install solar on other buildings or even invest in a community solar array on the tribal territory.

Denise Merchant, the former director of the preschool, said the installation of the solar panels worked with the concept of returning “to an indigenous, sustainable nation.”

Asked what the school would do with the savings it will begin to realize, Merchant laughed and said, “What won’t we do?”