Thomas Jefferson High School

As a Renewable School, Thomas Jefferson High School in Auburn, Washington is building a dedicated community of renewable energy educators, generating clean energy through their 1.1-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) system, and leveraging the system's performance data as an educational tool to bring energy topics to life in their classrooms.

In 2008, 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. Energy monitoring provided to the school connected the live performance data from their PV system to the Energy Exploration Center at Solar4RSchools.org. At the time of the project, students and educators were able to analyze the system's performance data for educational purposes.

Thomas Jefferson High School is very excited about offering its students hands-on access to solar-electric technology. Within a single year, the PV system installed at the school will produce more than 1,000 kilowatt-hours of clean, renewable energy. More importantly, it will create interdisciplinary educational opportunities for their students and increase their ability to make informed energy decisions as they become adult citizens.