High School students in Canada soak up more solar power in their school complex
Brett Gundlock/ January 10, 2007
Source: Cochrane Times
http://www.cochranetimes.com/News/279717.html
The Sustainable Development Committee at Cochrane High School completed phase two of their project, Monday Jan. 8 when they installed ten more solar panels at their school. The new panels will run the school’s scoreboard in the gym. There are currently 30 panels, which were put up in phase 1 of the groups project and they contribute 1 per cent of the schools electricity. The new panels are rated at 125 volts, opposed to the old ones that are rated at 110 volts. The committee saw the price of the panels fall over the two years since they bought the old ones. The committee raised $30,000, most of the money came from grants.
“What people need to realize, it sounds very expensive and not very cost efficient, but this set of solar panels are cheaper then the first set, so it shows that within two years even the costs come down,” Stephanie Bennett, a science teacher at CHS. “We had a number of business members from the community donate prizes to an auction that we had. It goes to show you with small businesses in this town just how generous that are with school projects,” said Bennett. “On top of that we had Dr. Phil Greeves, Cochrane Dodge, Smitty’s and a number of other small businesses in this community that donated to this project.”
The committee was formed in February 2004 and currently has nine students on it in grades 10-12. The program was created when Bennett and Earl Binder, another teacher at CHS decided to take a more active role in teaching students about this type of technology. They decided to take the learning from the classroom and books to the real world. “We are going against the grain because it is not an accepted thing at this time, we are trail blazing. I think it is appealing to the kids in that respect because they are going into some unused territory and that looks good on a resume. It shows people that they are standing up for something that they believe in and I commend that with the students, because it is tough,” said Bennett.
“We are interested in looking at ways in our school and our community that we can contribute to producing green energy and other more environmental friendly ways of using energy,” said Brittany Logan, a Grade 12 student at CHS. “Learning about the issue of climate change in Science 10 got me interested in wanting to find out what I can do as a student to help and even implementing these tools in our homes and around the community,” said Logan.
“I think that it is that attitude towards sustainability that we’ve helped promote and it is kind of an attitude that you can use in your whole life, if it is recycling, car pooling, installing your own solar panels to help cut down on green house gas emissions,” said Logan. “I think in many instances we under estimate the value of the youth contribution to big things. If it wasn’t for the students jumping on board for both phase one and phase two, you wouldn’t see what you see right now at this school,” said Bennett. “We have became a model institution for many schools not just in this province but across this country and abroad.” “These guys have to feel proud about this, they have done a lot of work and they do have knowledge about this type of development, they are our future,” “said Bennett.