Bending the Arc

The Fond du Lac Public Library is now plugged into the sun.

Following more than a year of permitting, construction, and more, solar panels at the library are producing electricity and lowering the library’s ongoing energy costs.

The project was announced in March 2025, when installation began on an array of 500-watt solar panels on the roof of the library. Now complete, 240 solar panels are harvesting energy from the sun, providing power to the Fond du Lac Public Library.

This marked the culmination of nearly three years of planning and fund-raising to make the solar project a possibility.

The new solar panels were expected to generate up to 400 kilowatt hours a day but have outperformed this level on several occasions since their installation. This is enough electricity to cover more than 25% of the library’s electrical needs, and library leadership anticipates the project to save the Fond du Lac Public Library about $22,000 a year.

“Library staff are pleased to complete the solar panel project, which benefits the community through efficient use of funds while also reducing the library’s environmental impact. We appreciate the community’s support in this endeavor,” Fond du Lac Public Library Director Rachel Fuller said.

The library’s collection serves every age group, from picture books for pre-readers to a robust equipment collection, and much more. Online services supported by the library include a streaming service for movies and series (Kanopy); an e-book, audiobook, and online magazine app (Libby); a language learning app (Mango), and much more.

Visitors to the library are able to see the savings in real time. A special display was installed near the library’s south entrance; it displays live updates about how much electricity the panels are generating for the library on a daily, monthly, and annual basis.

Financial support for the solar project was provided through a combination of Capital Improvement funds from the city of Fond du Lac and funding from the Friends of the Fond du Lac Public Library, as well as private donations from community members.