Sunny Days Ahead for Marian’s Solar Energy Initiative

By Lauren Hicks ‘26

This summer, Marian will take a big step toward becoming a more sustainable school by installing solar panels. Permits are currently being filed, and installation will soon begin. What started as a bright idea has now advanced to a glowing opportunity.

In 2024, then senior Kenadie Rudloff came to President Michele Ernst with a proposal to install solar panels on the roof, which stemmed from a meeting with the student Sustainability Board. Rudloff, along with another 2024 graduate, Sydney Auman, were in charge of the club at that time.

“Every once in a while, we would have meetings where we came up with ideas to make Marian more sustainable,” Rudloff said. “One of the ideas that Sydney and I were looking into was renewable energy. We decided that, as a club, this isn’t something that we could attain, but something that could better the school.”

Although a compelling case, it was not in the cards in 2024. “We really liked the idea, but we didn’t have the budget to do it at the time,” Ernst said.

However, things took a turn for the better when Vice President of Finance Jane Dineen began to calculate how much the installation would cost.

“I had a solar panel company reach out to me in the fall [of 2025], and I was aware of Kenadie’s proposal, so I asked Dr. Sullivan for it, thinking that there could be data I could use,” Dineen said. We realized that this could happen, but we needed to figure out how to cover capital costs.”

After reviewing many grants, Marian applied to the Lozier Foundation and will receive $150,000 from them. The Lozier Foundation noted that they liked the fact that this was a student-initiated project.

“I quoted [Kenadie] in our grant application, which really resonated with the Lozier board,” Dineen said. “I re-ran her numbers, and her work was very good.”

However, the school is still hoping to raise more money for this project. “We are still in need,” Dineen said. “We are working on raising an additional  $100,000 to achieve the  Lozier match .  To date, we have raised 14.5% of the match funding.”

Additionally, the school is utilizing tax credits and city grants.

The positive impacts of this new installment don’t just end at cost savings for the school. The new solar panels will reduce the school’s current energy consumption by 15% and save more than 239,000 pounds of coal annually.

“You think of caring for God’s creation, caring for the earth…That 15% is a whole trainload of coal. This renewable energy is just scratching the surface, but it’s a really nice start,” Dineen said.

“As a Catholic community, we obviously have a calling to care for the earth, not only as people but as Catholics,” Rudloff said. “Instilling that into students is such an important part of a Catholic education and creating such well-rounded women.”

“The ability for students to get engaged in what we’re doing, from a sustainability perspective, certainly creates opportunities in the classroom,” Ernst said.

“We’re planning  online access so our students can easily access data.,” Dineen said. “You would be able to see the electricity output that our  panels are producing in real time.”

Honors Physics II students spent the last few weeks of the school year learning about renewable energy sources. Seniors Brooklyn Salzbrenner, Natalie Pham and Reese Eggers were excited to hear about the new additions to the building.

“This energy source is so important because it doesn’t emit any harmful chemicals or gases,” Pham said. “Solar panels work to produce energy by converting the sun’s energy from [direct current] to [alternating current], which allows household items to use the sun’s energy.”

“They are actually the fastest-growing energy source, and the sun can provide enough energy in 90 minutes to power the entire world with solar panels,” Salzbrenner said.

All three seniors said they agreed that this new installation will help Marian become more sustainable.

“I am a strong believer that change begins with us,” Eggers said. “If we, as consumers, cannot commit to actively working to make a change, how can we expect corporations to do so?”

According to Dineen, the installation is planned to be complete by the start of the new school year.

Dineen said she would like to double the capacity of these solar panels in a few years, if all goes well.

“This is a three-step project in my mind,” Dineen said. “I would love to see us cover our entire roof system, then phase three is developing some sort of solar farm on our land.”

The impact of this project is spreading light on what can be done. “Marian is a leader in almost every aspect of education, sports, academics, whatever it is, we have always been on the forefront of girls’ and women’s experiences within Omaha,” Rudloff said. “Sustainability is the one thing that we were a little bit behind on, especially when compared to other schools. By making this push, we are putting ourselves ahead in yet another way. We are also just doing what’s right.”

If you would like to support Marian’s solar initiative, click here.