Just One Event of 10/10/10 Global Work Party

IBEW Installs Solar Panels on Illinois Governor’s Mansion

{Rich Marsaglia, solar project manager, left, and journeymen inside wiremen Doug Harvey and Albert Waldon stand behind the solar array they installed on the roof of the Illinois governor’s mansion.}

Nov 5, 2010 - When Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn decided to put solar panels on the roof of the governor’s mansion in Springfield, the state turned to the Electrical Workers (IBEW) to handle the job.

David Burns, business manager of Electrical Workers Local 193 in Springfield, Ill., contacted Rich Marsaglia, a 15-year IBEW member and solar project manager for a Haenig Electric, a local company, whose owners agreed to donate the labor to install the panels.

The project kicked off Oct. 10 as part of the 10/10/10 Global Work Party. The Global Work Party, a day of action to fight climate change, includes more than 7,000 events in 183 different countries to help find solutions to climate change.

A few weeks later, Local 193 journeymen inside wiremen Doug Harvey and Albert Waldon completed the project.

It is estimated that the new, one kilowatt solar array will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 tons of carbon dioxide over the next 25 years, the equivalent to about 100,000 car miles or the planting of 1,100 trees.

Quinn said of his decision to install the panels: {read rest}