Springville K-8

The 100-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) system at Springville K-8 in Portland, Oregon is one of three similar renewable energy systems installed on Beaverton School District (BSD) school buildings in 2011. These projects are a public-private partnership with the solar panels funded and installed by private energy investors and the schools providing roof space. BSD will benefit from free solar power generated by these PV systems for 15 years reducing purchases of electricity from Portland General Electric and saving the District about $30,000 each year in electricity costs. The PV system installed on the roof of Springville K-8 is rated to produce about 100,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year under our sun and weather conditions. In addition, educational materials and data from the PV system is available to all District teachers for classroom work with students.

In addition to building a dedicated community of renewable energy educators, the Renewable Classroom PLUS project from Solar 4R Schools has transformed the school's existing PV system into an interactive classroom tool. Energy monitoring provided to the school connected the live solar energy data from their PV system to the Energy Exploration Center at Solar4RSchools.org. Students and educators nationwide can chart, graph and analyze the system's performance data for educational purposes. A touchscreen kiosk located within the facility allowsvisitors to interact with the system's live performance data while learning about the science and benefits of renewable energy.

In 2011, 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.