photo by: City of Lawrence

Solar panels are installed by Good Energy Solution at the City of Lawrence's Prairie Park Nature Center in this photo from November 2014.

A Lawrence solar energy company plans to give a local nonprofit organization a free solar energy system.

Good Energy Solutions, 641 E. 22nd St., is currently accepting applications from nonprofit organizations in Douglas County who are interested in the offer. Shana Good, who runs the company with her husband, Kevin, said that they would provide the solar panels and install the system free of charge.

Good said her family had the idea to help nonprofit organizations reduce their energy use when they were volunteering for a nonprofit some years ago and noticed all the lights in the building were fluorescent. She said the idea behind the solar energy system offer was that the nonprofit would spend less on its utility bills and therefore have more money to spend on whatever the nonprofit does.

“We get a lot of requests for donations and so forth throughout the year, and we figured this is also a way of donating, but it’s not for just now,” Good said. “It’s for years and years of benefit.”

This is not the first time the Goods have given away a solar energy system to a local nonprofit. In 2017, the company gave a solar energy system to Van Go Inc., an arts-based social service and job-training agency for 14- to 24-year-olds.

Good said Van Go’s solar energy system has made about 7,500 kilowatt hours of electricity since it was installed. Good Energy Solutions also installed LED lighting in Van Go’s building, 715 New Jersey St. Good estimated the solar energy system and LED lighting have saved Van Go about $700 per year in energy costs.

Good said the value of the upcoming solar giveaway is about $10,000, which includes the cost of the solar panels and other materials as well as the labor for the installation. She said the company has had success the past year, and she was happy that the company was in a position to make the donation again.

“I feel grateful that we’re able to do it this year and just really appreciate everything that the hardworking people in nonprofit organizations do for people in our community,” Good said.

Applicants who applied for the 2017 solar giveaway are still able to apply for the 2020 giveaway, according to an announcement about the program on the company’s website. Applications for this year’s solar energy system giveaway are due by Dec. 31 and can be submitted online at the company’s website, goodenergysolutions.com.

Good said any nonprofit in Douglas County could apply and that it’s not required that the organization own the building it resides in, though that would be preferred. In addition to ensuring the building has the structural integrity to support the system, she said that Good Energy Solutions makes the selection based on which nonprofit organization’s building would benefit most from the solar energy installation.

“We would prefer to put the solar panels in an area that they’re really going to create a lot of energy and be most beneficial,” Good said. She said that depends on several factors, including shade from trees, other buildings or the structure of the building itself.

Good Energy Solutions is a family-owned company that started in Lawrence in 2007. The company will announce the recipient of the solar energy system in January and will install it on the organization’s property sometime in 2020.