Solar Schools in Northern and Central California
There are three main components to the PG&E Solar Schools Program:
- Installation of $20,000 solar generation systems for educational use. Up to 30 schools will be selected to receive these systems at no cost.
- PG&E will underwrite the costs, allowing 600 teachers to attend science curriculum training seminars.
- Bright Ideas grants. PG&E will award up to $200,000 in cash grants of $2,500 and $5,000 for solar science projects.
The Foundation for Environmental Education is responsible for helping with the installation of systems; however, we work very closely with PG&E and NEED throughout the process. The installation starts with a competitive process in which schools apply to the PG&E Solar Schools Program (www.pge.com/solarschools) with schools telling us why we should select their school. The installation is standardized for consistency throughout the state.
Some people ask us, “Why don’t you put the systems up on the roof? It’d be cheaper, and easier!†There are three primary reasons. First, we want to have a standard design that everyone has in common so that they recognize they’re all part of a larger solar schools team…and all plugged into the same sun.
Second, we try to install the systems as consistently as possible to ensure we maintain as many constants as possible in our solar experiment. PG&E provides a commercial grade data monitoring system that tracks the complete energy and environmental performance of all of the systems installed in real-time (there will be 60 by the end of the year!). Do hotter climates make for better producing systems? How does the coastal fog affect systems? We want students at a school in Fresno to be able to compare the electricity generated at their school with a school in Merced…and a school in Mendocino and a school in Placerville. If the systems are all different sizes, it becomes more difficult to see the impact of longititude and latitude and altitude, and weather on the electricity generation.
Third, we don’t want systems that are out of sight and out of mind. There is nothing that compares to being able to stand underneath 1kW. Kids will often look up in wonder and say, “Wow, that’s 1 kilowatt…what is a watt…does that power my whole school?†The answers are abundant, and the questions keep coming…that’s what we hope for. If we put systems on the roof, they may go in cheaper and quicker, but they may quickly become invisible to the students at the school and the new students starting at the school each year. These projects are not designed to be hidden from everyone except the math and science clubs. These systems are designed to help all of the students at the schools improve their understanding of math and science.
In 2004, we added ten systems…in 2005 we added twenty more…as we type this story, we are in the process of adding thirty more schools! There are no batteries in these systems. These are all grid-tied solar electric systems. The process takes several months to complete. At the end of the process, there is a ribbon cutting event or some public announcement event that recognizes the school for being selected and for allowing the PV system to be installed at their school.
The installation process begins with site selection, plans, and permits. The installations are scheduled around the schedule at the school. The standard system is approximately 1kW and occupies roughly a 12’ x 12’ footprint. The lowest point of the system is at about 8’. When we are selecting a site, we look for the site that best “fits†the school. Factors that affect the “fit†include: Proximity to classrooms (where teacher champions are located, near an organic garden or outdoor education area, etc.); close to point of interconnection (as all these systems are tied to the PG&E grid, they are wired into a local panel and must be close to the PG&E meter); good solar access (limited shading, and not under a tree, and in a visible/secure location). Once we all select the site, we bring in our installation team to finalize designs and begin the construction process.
There is also a teacher training part of this initiative, but the teacher training is open to all schools and not just the schools selected to get a PV system. If the teachers have a system at their own school, they can use the monument and installation as a teaching tool as well as the data monitoring. Teachers also receive curriculum, and hands-on teaching tools. There are also Bright Ideas grants available to public schools anywhere in our service territory.
You can see what our systems are doing right now by going to this site: http://pge.fatspaniel.net/SunPoweredLearning. Not all of our systems are online yet- there are occasionally difficulties working through the local networks of schools, and allowing the data to flow freely across the internet. Firewalls often block the data from going to the Web site. We get notification of these fire wall problems and we call the school districts and have them removed so don’t be alarmed if you don’t see live data for a particular school. You should click on the icon that says “Week” or “Month” and you can see the system has been working. And the data is not lost. When the firewall allows the data to flow out, the system data is automatically updated.
Another thing to remember is that when installations are first completed and the systems turned on, the live data starts off in a private password protected site until the system has been checked out and the school’s IT people feel comfortable with the live data leaving the school. We keep it password protected until the district allows us to post the data on a public Web site.
Each of these solar electricity installations must go through the same interconnection process that any solar electricity system must go through if it is connected to our grid. This involves some paperwork and inspections. Plans are reviewed, and meter numbers are confirmed. It may seem time consuming because the systems are only 1 kW in size, but they still generate electricity so they must still go through the same process as a 10 kW or a 50 kW. We try to make this process as easy as possible for everyone involved.
Here’s the list of areas where the PG&E Solar Schools Program currently has schools:
- Harrison Elementary School (Stockton, CA)
- Westmore Oaks Elementary School (West Sacramento, CA)
- Camp Arroyo (Livermore, CA)
- Walker Creek Ranch Outdoor School (Petaluma, CA)
- Bellevue Elementary (Santa Rosa, CA)
- Ohlone Elementary (Watsonville, CA)
- Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART) (Clovis, CA)
- Fremont Charter School (Merced, CA)
- Theuerkauf Elementary (Mountain View, CA)
- De Laveaga Elementary School (Santa Cruz, CA)
- Evergreen 6th Grade Academy Charter (Paradise, CA)
- Anderson New Tech High School (Anderson, CA)
- Winship Middle School (Eureka, CA)
- Sunny Brae Middle School (Arcata, CA)
- Admiral Ackers Elementary School (Lemoore, CA)
- Roosevelt High School (Fresno, CA)
- Monterey Park Elementary School (Salinas, CA)
- Barry School (Yuba City, CA)
- Gold Oaks Arts Charter School (Placerville, CA)
- Plainfield Elementary School (Woodland, CA)
- Walnut Grove Elementary School (Pleasanton, CA)
- Alvarado Elementary School (San Francisco, CA)
- Robert F. Kennedy School (San Jose, CA)
- Lupine Hills Elementary (Hercules, CA)
- Glenview Elementary School (Oakland, CA)
- Clearlake Community (Clearlake, CA)
- Redwood Elementary School (Fort Bragg, CA)
- Mendocino High School (Mendocino, CA)
- San Gabriel Elementary School (Atascadero, CA)
- George Washington Battles Elementary School (Santa Maria, CA)
PG&E just announced the next 15 for 2006- congratulations…we’ll be working with schools in these areas soon:
- San Mateo
- Pescadero
- Oakland
- Concord
- Berkeley
- Seaside
- Santa Maria
- Farmington
- Orland
- Miranda
- Hoopa
- Lucerne
- Point Arena
- Burrel