Last month the 2006-2007 Health and Bioscience/Plant Ecology Club of Mount Diablo High School prepared for graduation, and celebrated one of their final accomplishments with their school and community…the PG&E Solar Schools Program team was there to have a Solar Celebration with them. Lead by teacher Sandy Johnson-Shaw, the students dedicated their new organic garden to Carolyn Hebert and Perry Carlston – “For the seeds you helped plant, and for those that have yet to grow in all of those you’ve touched.” These wonderful teachers (Mrs. Hebert, Mrs. Johnson-Shaw and Mr. Carlston) had been planting seeds for years…but in October of 2006 they began realizing another dream- to create an outdoor learning lab connecting healthy food to renewable energy within an organic garden, and that’s where the PG&E Solar Schools Program team stepped in to help with the energy elements of the garden.

In October, there was some dirt, sand, and a dream. By March, there was some new soil donated and delivered by American Soil Products on behalf of the PG&E Solar Schools Program.

By April, the first crops were being harvested, and a 700 pound steel sunflower was growing form the earth with a team from SolarCity .

One of my favorite quotes is, “You See Things; and Say “Why”? But I Dream things that Never Were; And I say “Why Not” … most people know this as a quote of John F. Kennedy, but in fact it’s from a Nobel Prize winning author. The MDHS Organic Garden is the culmination of a several dreams, and we can’t wait to see where the next class of dreamers leads us.

The first person who writes to us with the name of the true author of the “dream things that never were” quote, and writes with another famous quote attributed to him/her will get a special EnergySeeds prize…

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.

Here is a story from one of our schools in Illinois – Roselle Middle School has a roof mounted 1kW PV system, and is part of the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation solar schools program.

Roselle Middle School District – story submitted by Joel Simburger, 7th grade science teacher.

The introduction of the solar panels to RMS will not only help save money and reduce our carbon footprint, but also open students’ eyes to the alternative energy possibilities available to them. Roselle Middle School students begin their study of energy resources and their impact in 6th grade by viewing the website and calculating how much the school is saving.

The 7th grade science curriculum includes a study of energy resources and their costs, both financially and environmentally. Within this study, students weigh the pros and cons of different energy resources, including solar energy. The classes learn about solar energy using mini-solar panel laboratory kits and by observing data from the solar panel monitoring website.

8th grade students create graphs of the amount of energy the solar panels generate daily. They also create weather logs in science in order to see how weather affects how much energy the solar panels generate.

Our partner in the PG&E Solar Schools Program, The NEED Project, is hosting teacher training workshops in the coming months…at many wonderful locations in California… Check out the locations…Orland, Paradise, San Francisco, Arcata, Fort Bragg…to name a few…

Check dates and locations here:http://www.need.org/pgesolarschools/ssc.htm

Here’s a bit of history on one of our training sites, and a future home of PV on a stick, Orland, CA. Luanne Stewart, a teacher at Fairview Elementary School and resident of Orland, offered this glimpse into Orland’s historic past and future:

When the north valley first learned a railroad was going to be built in their neighborhood, the Chamberlain brothers decided to map out a townsite on some of their land. They had a business district laid out and T.H. Dodson opened up our first hotel and store. Soon a blacksmith also set up shop. It wasn’t long before there was a general store, hardware store, and homes. Everyone was sure hoping that the railroad would build its tracks right through town.

Well, so now they had a town. They had to decide on a name. There were three men who had the honor of choosing a name. They each had a name for Orland, and would not listen to other suggestions. Just short of fisticuffs, the three men decided to put the names into a hat and called a little girl in off the street to pull the name out of the hat. Orland won. Leland and Comstock (both famous historical figures) were the two names not chosen.

The very first post office was housed in a dresser drawer. However, in 1876 Orland did get a post office building. So what about the train???? The train decided it was going to lay its tracks a few miles southeast of Orland in a town that no longer exists. The good folks of Orland got together, bought some land, and offered it to the railroad company saying, “Pleeeeeaaaase, come to Orland,”

So they did. By 1882 trains were running in and out of Orland regularly. The town began to grow rapidly. By 1887 there were 700 people here. One old timer recalls how the skies would blacken with huge flocks of birds. He says it was like a cloud goin’ over. Orland, today, is a thriving metropolis of 6,000 people. It has doubled in population since 1970.

Beautiful Black Butte is 8 miles to the west and offers boating, fishing, camping and equestrian trails up the yingyang. We are a convenient three and a half hours from just about everywhere – the coast, the city, ski resorts, the casinos. We can be anywhere we want to be in half a day, and the beauty of it is, no one wants to come here. (We get mad if we have to park more than 4 cars from the front door of the store.) And for some reason, we allow parking right in the middle of 4th St, our 2 block business district. 1,200 new homes are being built here. They’ve been tearing out orchards and making new roads just to build them. We’ll be needing new schools soon. I think Orland just might be fixin’ to hit another growth spurt.

Fairview Elementary School in Orland will be growing their very own PV on a stick in the coming months as well…we look forward to adding more solar enthusiasts to the Orland growth spurt in the coming months…stay tuned…

This story speaks to the tenacity, vision, and determination of one of the PG&E Solar Schools Program’s champion’s, Tobin Hahn…there are different challenges with each installation, but here is a story of how one particular project (and his team) brought their project to sunlight…

Story submitted by Tobin Hahn

View looking south from the Mendocino High School

The Mendocino High School is located on a hill overlooking the historic village of Mendocino. The town is perched on the headlands of the beautiful Northern California coastline, and is a popular tourist destination. Because the town is designated as a historic district, it has remained quaint and has been a favorite location for movie studios over the years.

The same regulations that have preserved the flavor of the town made the site selection for the solar panel a challenge. Coupled with some technical difficulties, the installation of our pole-mounted photovoltaic system has been anything but a smooth process.

I first applied for the PG&E Solar School grant in the spring of 2005. We did not make it in the first ten schools that were chosen, but were selected in the second round that winter. Once we were notified of the specs of the project and of a possible local sub-contractor, we were able to assemble a team of teachers, administrators, students, and maintenance to locate a site. Because the high school is in the middle of the historic district, it was important to not have the panel in plain view, yet still have it accessible to students and, of course, to sunlight. The Historic Review Board requires that development be in harmony with surrounding structures and even has specific wording strictly limiting photovoltaic installations.

The site of our first choice was adjacent to an existing greenhouse (an example of passive solar energy) and several portable buildings with easy conduit access to electrical and Internet hook-ups. I submitted the site plan and fees to the county planning office which oversees the Historic Review Board. Because the Review Board meets only once a month, we had to wait until March for our hearing.

Location of the first site by the greenhouse.

I was certain our site was adequate. The immediate surrounding buildings were not historic and the greenhouse was industrial looking as well. Yet, at the March meeting, an ominous tone was set as the Board presented the findings. The Board had found that the panel could be viewed or glimpsed from over 6 historic sites and that the old road/path that runs by the proposed site is itself historic. Several citizens argued, as had I, that this installation should be allowed on the grounds of its educational value and the fact that the majority of the school itself is not historic or not exactly in harmony with the historic buildings surrounding it. Furthermore, some passionate speakers argued that the Review Board would have to allow solar panels in the town eventually, as fossil fuel production is peaking, and that this would be an excellent place to start.

Despite the community support, the Review Board turned down the proposal. They asked if the panel could be placed on the north side of a building and somehow be shielded by lattice or plantings. The comment would bring chuckles from the audience and later ridicule in the press. Ironically, the final location of the panel would be on the north side of a building and would be concealed well enough to not need additional shielding.

Because the proposal had been rejected, we would have to wait another month before another hearing. During that time, I enlisted the help of the students and the sub-contractor to find suitable sites. I took pictures of each site and used PhotoShop to insert a panel into the image to give an idea of the installation (the Board had suggested erecting a frame to show the visual impact, the digital approach was much easier!). I then had the students discuss the pros and cons of each site based on the Review Boards requirements and the educational requirements. The students chose a location by the concrete water tank that serves the athletic fields.

New proposed site for the installation looking east.

I had originally looked at this site and rejected it because it sits in a depression, with the High School on a hill to the east and the Community High School rising up just to the south. I had been sure, as had the sub-contractor that solar exposure would be insufficient at this site even though the location was nicely shielded from the view of historic structures. The sub-contractor returned to the site with a solar path finder and to our surprise it had excellent solar exposure. It was set back just far enough from all the looming hills and structures around it. The pump house for the well had the proper electrical requirements, yet the Internet connection would have to be wireless.

I rallied support from the local renewable energy community for the April Review Board meeting and came prepared with my three sites, one of which I selected so they could reject it should they need to feel more discretionary – I was not leaving anything to chance this time. After a strong presentation (PowerPoint of April Review Board Presentation), including reminding the Board that Mendocino has a history of using local energy resources (see the windmills and water towers in the postcard below), the public spoke overwhelmingly in favor of the project, again encouraging the Board members to set a precedent and make a historic decision to allow solar panels in the town of Mendocino.

Windmills and Water towers in Mendocino.
The high school is on the upper left hill.
The building pictured burnt down long ago.

The Board took great pride that night in passing our proposal for the site by the concrete water tank. It is hard to say if the site was sufficiently shielded from view, or if it was good enough that political pressure took care of the rest. Once approved, there is a waiting period before construction can start in case any new findings are introduced. The waiting period passed without any issues and the construction began. It was now May.

The installation of the panel went smoothly save for some delays for parts to arrive. The panel was erected before school let out for the summer, but an Internet connection and paperwork remained before it could be turned on.

Students with their solar cars under the installation.

The wireless connection was established during the summer. It appeared to be too weak a signal to reach the building and then it appeared to stop working all together. I contacted the district tech person at the end of July and received word that it would be fixed. August passed, September rolled around, the district tech person quit her job and left town. Her parting remarks to me were that she had no idea what was wrong with the Internet connection and that it was not just a weak signal. Had summer really come and gone without this issue being solved?

In the end, I finally decided to look into it myself, even though I know nothing about the technology. To my surprise, the breaker for the wireless link had been turned off in the pump house! With the simple flip of a switch, contact was reestablished. The wireless link is still too weak, and intermittently comes on/off, but at least I know it functions!