Hi my name is Joseph and I am a teacher’s assistant for Evergreen 6. I went to Evergreen 6 last year and was part of the Northern California Solar Regatta. We started building our boat from scratch last year. We had no boat or motor. We put out a Craigslist ad asking to buy a cheap boat. We had someone respond saying we could have one for free! We got the boat within a couple of weeks of the reply and started working on it.

We worked on our solar panels at our first meeting. We tested the five panels SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utilities District) gave us to see which four panels put out the most watts. We learned how to wire the four panels together in parallel. Someone on the regatta team had a 24 volt wheelchair motor lying around so we hooked our panels up to it and pressed the ON button. The motor didn’t spin, so already we knew that we couldn’t run a motor that used that many watts and amps.

We kept working on it and we found the right motor which was a 24 volt 350 watt motor. We had this great plan on how to mount the motor too. A small group of Solar Regatta members stayed after school on one overcast Tuesday. They drilled through the bottom of the boat and attached our motor container. It was made from an old section of a gas line, part of a wrecked semi-truck’s exhaust pipe, and half of a giant pink Easter egg (for hydrodynamics). It worked perfectly until we found out that our motor was burning up during a test run at Paradise Lake. We had to redesign our idea. One of the regatta members had the idea of coating the motor in spray able truck bed liner, that way it would be waterproof and colder.

Designing how to put the panels on the boat was another task we worked on during the first couple meetings. We came up with a simple, yet efficient way to mount our panels. They wired them all together in parallel using conduit piping. Then we mounted them on the middle of the boat. The panels weren’t able to tilt but the races were to take place around noon, therefore it wouldn’t affect our energy productivity too much.

Then we were able to get the boat painted a racing green for free. Brittany Mittag’s dad, Shawn Mittag, did body work and painted our boat for free. Then we got decals for all of our sponsors to put on our boat. We only had two test runs, one at the public pool, and one at Paradise Lake. The one at the public pool went great. Lots of people came to watch us try it out. They got to see it on the water for the first time. It went great, of course we only went the length of the pool a couple times, but still, it was awesome. Our other test run was at Paradise Lake. It was a private test where all four pilots drove it around the lake. We were able to see how fast it could really go. It was really fun to watch, the boat was turning well and it was going pretty fast too.

At last the race rolled around towards the end of May. We were ready to go with our Evergreen 6 shirts and our tents. We headed to Rancho Seco the day before the race to spend the night at the campground. We set up camp and surveyed the race location. Then we went to sleep.

The next morning was crazy. We had breakfast and the towed our boat to the race. We got there early to set up an Evergreen 6 area with our solar ovens and recycling bins. When spectators started to get there we put our boat by the entrance and talked to people about our boat and solar. We also talked to them about all the recycled materials we used making our boat.

When the races started we carried our boat down to the dock. We were in the second race for endurance. The endurance race was a thirty minute long race that went in a long oval shape. We started off great and kept up with our competition. Around the twenty minute mark, our boat started slowing down. We didn’t know what was wrong. Our boat ended losing to our opponent by about one lap even though our boat kept getting progressively slower. When we took it out of the water we could smell a burnt rubber smell. We found out that it was coming from our motor. So, we opened up the motor and found that the rubber casings around the motor wires were melted. So we asked the officials if we could change our motor and they said yes. So we changed it quickly and got back on the lake.

The last two races: slalom and sprint, went by fast. We didn’t race anybody though, we were just timed. It was really windy when we raced and the wind kept pushing us to the side. It was difficult for our pilots to control the boat but we did finish.

When it was time for us to see who won, we all sat as a group and waited for the results. Evergreen 6 didn’t win any categories but we were happy with our effort. Laguna Creek won overall but, Laguna Creek was the team that we only lost to by a lap in the endurance race so we were proud.

This year we are racing again with some new kids and some kids from last year, myself included. We are figuring out a way to tilt our panels this year. We are using the same boat as last year with some adjustments. Thanks to our sponsors last year we still have enough money to do this again. A big thanks to PG&E Solar Schools Program ( Our largest supporter financially.), Rotary of Paradise ($500 grant), SMUD (Sponsoring and organizing the event), K.G. Thompson Construction, Mittag’s Auto Body, Matthew’s Roofing, 7up/RC of Chico, Favor Software, Ace Hardware of Paradise, Abshier’s Blacksmithing, Durham Batteries Plus, Chico Paradise Recreation and Parks District, and Nick Knezic – Boat Decals.

– Greg Holman at Paradise.

Joseph Levin is a 7th grader at Paradise Intermediate School. Joseph enjoys playing baseball with his friends, riding his bike, and hanging out with his friends. He is a hard working student and athlete and doesn’t complain.

The St Paul of the Cross School was founded in 1925 by the Sisters of Mercy and would later be staffed by Dominican Sisters.  The mission of the school was to nurture the adults of tomorrow.  The school is located at 140 S. Northwest Highway in Park Ridge, Illinois and is one of the latest schools in the Illinois Solar Schools Program funded by Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation.   Joan Macpherson is the business manager and is the primary contact for the solar school project.  Lorelei Bobroff is the school principal.

The solar electricity system is 1,080 watts (6 Mage 180 watt panels) with an Enphase inverter.  The system was installed by Earth, Wind and Solar.  If you would like to see the electricity generation data, here is the link to their school page and the data link is right above the picture.

St Paul of the Cross School

One of the newest schools in the Illinois Solar Schools Program is Kewanee High School in Kewanee, Illinois.

The installation is a 1.25 kW PV system using 5 REC 250 watt solar panels and an Enphase inverter. The panels sit at a 35 degree angle and are mounted on the edge of the roof so they are visible to the students at the school for this school year and for many years to come.

Kewanee High School has over 500 students which is rather large for a rural school but the average
class size is only 17 students. James Bryan is the Principal and our primary contact. Here is how he describes his school:

Kewanee High School offers unique programs for a rural school.  Kewanee High School offers a wide range of Career and Technical Education courses in business, family and consumer sciences, agricultural, woods, and metals(including welding). Along with our traditional educational programming, students at Kewanee High School are offered multiple avenues to explore in order to prepare them for life after graduation.  Kewanee High School also offers “dual credit” courses with the local junior college, Black Hawk – East Campus. These dual credit courses allow students to earn both high school and college credit at the same time for a nominal fee.

One of the newest schools in the Illinois Solar Schools Program is Kimball Hill School in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

Illinois Kimball Hill School District 15

The installation is a 1.2 kW PV system using 5 Wanxiang 230 watt solar panels and an Enphase inverter.  The panels sit at a 30 degree angle and are mounted on the edge of the roof so they are visible to the students at the school for this school year and for many years to come.

The Wanxiang panels are assembled in Rockford, Illinois.

Kimball Hill is an elementary school in Community Consolidated School District No. 15.  Tracey Wrobel is the Principal.  There are approximately 550 students at the school and there will be a web page for this solar school project along with live data at www.IllinoisSolarSchools.org

There are two flows connected to every solar school project.

The first flow is electricity.  Sunlight hits your solar panels and this starts a process that ends with electricity flowing into your school.

The second flow is data/information.  An on line meter records the amount of solar electricity flowing into the school.  This is valuable in a lot of classroom teaching activities because it shows the students what the flow of solar electricity looks like.  Since it is impossible to see the electricity flowing, the data reveals the profile of that flow.  It records both the amount of electricity generated and also when that electricity is generated.

Solar Data

For example, we all know that almost no electricity will be generated at night when the sun is not shining light on the panels, but the profile will also demonstrate how the generation of electricity is lower at the start of each day and at the end of the day.  Sunrise and sunset provide less sunlight than the middle of the day or early afternoon.  We all know these facts, but the data display proves these facts in real time and in the form of a graph.

Now another value to having on line data monitoring is that it provides all of us with a way to determine if your system is working properly.  For example:  if someone accidentally turns off your solar electricity system there will be zero data in your monitoring profile. It may also be that someone turned off your data monitoring system and maybe your solar electricity part is working perfectly.  Either way, zero data in your monitoring profile alerts us that one of your flows is not working and we can then figure out what is not working and fix it.  Without the data monitoring profile, your system could be broken without anyone knowing it.  Since nothing burns, there is no flame to see.  Since nothing turns, there is nothing to watch rotating.   There is no way to know if your system is working without looking at some form of data device.

The on line devices we require to be part of every solar school project provide both teaching tools for your classrooms and, at the same time, provide you with a device that acts as an immediate warning that something is wrong with either your electricity flow or your data monitoring.

Footnote 1: most data systems allow for an e mail to be sent to one single person if there is any problem with the flow of your data.  This means you would be notified by Email the instant your data stopped flowing or flowed in a way that is inconsistent with your systems’ past profile.  You would not be notified by Email every night when the sun sets warning you that your system was no longer generating electricity because your profile would normally not be producing electricity at night.  But if your system stops showing electricity generation at 2:00 PM, you would get an immediate Email telling you to check your system.  If you want to get this type of notification at your school and you are currently not receiving it, Email me at Glen@LearnEnergy.org and I will help you set this up.

Footnote 2:  some data systems have a monthly cost.  Many data systems have no monthly cost for data monitoring.  If your school is currently paying a monthly data monitoring fee and you want to see if you have other options, Email me at Glen@LearnEnergy.org and I will help you with this options.

By Glen Kizer

Solar School Projects can be any size and shape, but we want the solar panels to be installed so they are visible from school grounds. The solar panels can be mounted on poles, awning style, installed near the ground, or on the edge of the roof, so long as the students can see them. Solar School projects are primarily educational and this experience is far more valuable for students if they are able to see the technology first-hand.

These solar panels are almost invisible to the students at this school.

The solar panels on this schools are always visible to the students.

In Solar School Projects where the arrays are large and installed for economic reasons, it may make sense to place the panels on the roof of the school. In our projects, the sizes of the systems are typically small and not designed for their economic benefit but for their educational value. If panels are hidden high on the roof of a school, it may be too dangerous for students to see them. Of course, your school can simply tell your students they are not allowed to see the solar panels because walking around on the roof is unsafe for students and potentially bad for the roof itself. How do you think that will work out long term? Students are often attracted to anything they are told they are not allowed to see. And why do the panels have to be hidden away? There is really no advantage to hiding the panels when it is just as easy to install them so that they are visible to the students at your school and maybe even the local community.

Also, as existing students graduate and leave the school, the new students may not even be aware there are panels hidden on the roof. This may be true with teachers as well. When teachers move on the new teachers may not know there are panels on the roof. If the panels are visible from school grounds, then the new students and teachers will know they are on your campus and ask about them and their educational value will continue over the long term.

–Glen Kizer