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Solar Powered Education with Rockway teacher/CREW member Rolf Thiessen and student
LISA MALLECK, FOR THE RECORD
Geography teacher Rolf Thiessen (left) and Grade 12 student Alec Barratt display a solar panel at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate.
Local - Solar-powered education
Rockway students raise $15,000 to bring green energy to the classroom
KITCHENER
Rockway Mennonite Collegiate is going solar, at least in small part.
The school has installed a one-kilowatt system consisting of six solar panels, purchased from Arise Technologies of Waterloo.
"We thought it would be good to come up with a long-term project students could contribute to and actually be part of the solution (to global warming)," said geography teacher Rolf Thiessen, who came up with the idea three years ago.
It has taken three years to raise enough money -- $15,000 -- to put in the system, Thiessen said.
The school used a green fundraising method: selling tree seedlings. In 2005-06, the school sold more than 500 native trees. Some 150 trees were planted on the school's grounds, the rest at students' homes.
The next year, the school again sold baby trees, but planted them at a nature reserve in Cambridge.
This year, the school has gone through the Mennonite Central Committee to buy trees for Haiti, which has been severely deforested.
A one-kilowatt solar system isn't going to make a significant difference to the school's power bills, but Thiessen said there are plans to keep raising money to install more.
For now, the solar panels will be more of a teaching tool than a power source. A data logger will keep track of factors such as how much energy is produced at what time of day, and students will be able to use that data for activities such as projecting how much power a larger system would produce.
"The intent is every student who graduates will have a very good knowledge of energy, primarily solar," Thiessen said.
Dave Bennett, senior manager of facilities of the Catholic school board, said as far as he knows no Catholic schools have solar panels.
Among public schools, Cameron Heights Collegiate in Kitchener uses solar energy to help heat the water for its swimming pool. The system produces about 35 per cent of the energy required to heat the pool, controller of facilities Art Phelan said. However, the low-tech system in place since 1984 doesn't include photovoltaic solar panels.
Huron Heights and Waterloo-Oxford secondary schools are looking into the feasibility of installing solar panels, Phelan added.
Rockway and Arise are hosting a ceremony to launch the solar initiative this morning at the school.
KAREN KAWAWADA RECORD STAFF
 http://news.therecord.com/article/295213 |
