Business leaders call for solar panels on Bloomington City Hall

Despite growing national support for the solar industry, Indiana is lagging behind, said Loren Stumpner, supervisor at Stumpner’s Building Services, a Bloomington company that’s joined in the push for solar expansion in the community.

David Mann, president of MPI Solar and Mann Plumbing, said Indiana has less than 600 grid-tied solar installations. That’s less than Montana, which has about 1,000, he said.

Installing solar panels on City Hall “would send a message to the community, to the state, that Bloomington, Indiana, really is getting behind solar,” Stumpner said.

Stumpner, whose company joined with MPI Solar to install solar panels on the county’s portion of the Showers building, added there’s great potential to install more solar panels on top of the building, which is broken into three different sections.