Solar Bragging Rights in Oakland…
A recent report by SustainLane Government concluded that Oakland is #1 when it comes to renewables!
You may be surprised to see the other cities the top the list here:
Leading the nation with 17 percent of its electricity produced by sources such as solar, wind and geothermal, most renewable energy generation in the city comes from commercial and residential photovoltaic (PV) systems.
Sue Morgan, a teacher at Glenview Elementary has her students follow energy production at her school as compared to others around California, and they see Oakland consistently producing! She, and Deitra Atkins, the principal of Glenview Elementary, recently hosted a film crew at their school, and provided this behind the scenes glimpse into what went down. With all those renewables, we think Oakland may reclaim the A’s for an A in renewable energy, and become known from here on out as the solar raiders!
Here’s a story from Mrs. Morgan…
Monday March 19th was a warm and sunny day, a perfect day for solar in the Bay Area. Glenview Elementary was going to be hosting some film folks from EcoMedia in New York City who were working with PG&E, the sponsor of our Solar Schools Program. I am usually not at Glenview on Mondays, but for this day, my incredibly supportive principal arranged for me to switch my Monday for another day with the school where I am usually the garden teacher Mondays.
In any event, I found myself at Glenview on a sunny Monday in March with a film crew, including a director, sound man, camera man and a few still photographers about to descend on our small 330 student campus in Oakland, California.
I had spoken to Michael, the director, on Monday morning before leaving my house and was aware he wanted us to be doing a hands-on activity. Specifically he requested that we work on the solar ovens we had made and used in the fall at our Solar Celebration. We would be taking them apart this morning and then putting them back together again during the filming later in the afternoon. There were 16 students who had managed to get their film release forms back on Monday AM… that’s 16 out of the 90 or so that I gave out Friday with the caveat that they must come back Monday morning or they would not be able to be part of the film shoot. Most really wanted to be part of it…but 16 was a good number since it was a number that would work well in the classroom, and it meant I would not have to choose students from a larger pool.
The film crew arrived close to 1 PM as students were just finishing lunch recess, so we were able to get ourselves into the classroom fairly quickly. Michael, the director, came in to see the room and do some checks on lighting with the camera and sound people. We talked about doing the solar ovens and he wanted them taken apart even further…he verbalized what he wanted to see me doing….what he wanted students doing…and how we would go outside and see the PV Array, which seems to now be known as a PV on a stick.
He was laying out the entire shoot before hand which made it easier to know how I and the students were to approach it. We finally began the actual filming close to 45 minutes later. There were more non-students in the room than students…we talked a little about their nervousness (and mine) and decided, it was really nothing…we could pretend they (the camera person, the director, the sound person, the PG&E reps etc)…were not there…which is what we did…pretty hard sometimes when the sound person has an 8 foot boom balanced on his head as he reaches out to catch a students comment, but the students were amazingly into the ‘oh so structured classroom set up’.
They asked and answered questions, they worked on making their solar ovens, they explained all they knew about the PV on a stick and why solar electricity was important to them and their futures. When we went outside to the PV on a Stick, it was now pretty hot and our PV is not on grass but tarmac, so it seemed even hotter. The director wanted us to walk naturally out to the PV and then talk about the Array and how it all worked as they filmed us up close and also from far away. We had to do the walking out about 3 times to get it to look natural as everyone became just too aware of the camera.
We also had to watch for a surprise that was to come onto the school yard and then we were to run over to it. The students did not know what this surprise was, and as school was just getting out a number of them had to leave–dropping our numbers to around 8 or 10…but then the surprise drove up…. A PG&E plug in Prius!
There are only 40 on them in the world, they get 100 miles to the gallon.. since the first 10 miles is totally electric. so it uses NO GASOLINE in the first 10 miles…and the theory is that most folks commute less than 10 miles one way to work which would mean if your commute was that short, you would NEVER need gas to get to and from work. At night you plug it into any wall socket. And you could still use the vehicle like a regular car (hybrid) for longer trips. It was cool to see and one of my students whose Mom has a Prius, really wanted to know how to get this for her car. All in all a very heady first real filming day for the kids.