Orcas Island HS

This project funded by

Orcas Island High School

Grade Level:
9-12
Location:
Eastsound, WA
PV System Size:
20.00 - kilowatts
Photo Gallery

Video Gallery

- none -
Technology Type:
solar
About the School:

As a Renewable School, Orcas Island High School is building a dedicated community of renewable energy educators, generating clean energy through their photovoltaic (PV) system, and leveraging the system's performance data as an educational tool to bring energy topics to life in their classrooms. The school installed a total of 20 kW of solar in 2015 through a unique partnership between the Solar 4R Schools program and the Community Solar project developed by the San Juan Islands Conservation District in partnership with Bonneville Environmental Foundation and Orcas Power and Light Cooperative. 

 

Orcas Island School District is grateful to the Orcas Island Community, our School Board, our local electric utility - OPALCO, Bonneville Environmental Foundation and The San Juan Islands Conservation District for so generously supporting our efforts to be better energy stewards with the installation on our high school roof of 20kW of solar panels.  The accompanying interactive kiosk from Bonneville Environmental Foundation that currently stands in the high school commons  serves as a "live" demonstration of the power of our free and natural resource - the SUN!!  This display encourages curiosity, which in turn motivates important discussions around energy issues and technology; hopefully, these conversations will then serve as inspiration for  the energy innovations of the future.

 

In 2014, educators within the school received a customized renewable energy teacher training, hands-on science kit materials to augment the school's existing curricula, and complete access to the resources available on the Solar4RSchools.org website.To optimize integration of renewable energy science and technology content, every aspect of the support provided by Solar 4R Schools was customized to fit the unique focus of the school community, including topics covered in the teacher training as well as our recommendations for activities and science kit materials to make integration of this new content as efficient as possible.