By Adam Studzinski

NORMAL – Illinois State University’s Bone Student Center was home Thursday to the Illinois Renewable Energy Conference.

The conference brought together renewable energy experts from all over the state to discuss different energy types, including wind, solar power, geothermal, biomass, and energy efficiency.

ISU economics professor and Director of the Center for Renewable Energy David Loomis said as much as McLean County and the rest of the state already does to harvest wind energy there’s still a lot more which can be done.

“There was a Department of Energy study that just came out looking at wind potential that could come from 2030 and out to 2050,” said Loomis. “Illinois has the potential, in their modeling, of being the number two wind state in the country, behind only Texas.”

There’s also a lot of potential for solar power, especially at schools. Loomis spoke about a recent project at Farmington’s school district.

“They had a perfect roof setting that could put solar panels out on, kind of, almost every square inch of the roof surface to generate electricity for that school,” said Loomis. “You think about, ‘well, how many schools do we have?’ Not just a couple little solar panels for educational purposes, which I’m not knocking, but real energy production for that school.”

The U.S. Supreme Court recently made ruling blocking a proposal to limit the amount of mercury emitted mostly from coal-fired power plants. Loomis did not think this would stop a push towards more renewable energy.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].