Elmonica Elementary School

Elmonica Elementary School

The photovoltaic (PV) system installed at Elmonica Elementary School is one of three similar PV systems installed on Beaverton School District (BSD) school buildings in 2011. These projects are a public-private partnership that combines private energy investor funding and the donated roof space from each school. The partnership provides BSD with free solar power generated by the PV systems for 15 years, saving the District about $30,000.00 each year in electricity costs. The system installed on the Beaverton Health and Science School roof is rated to produce about 100,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. Through the award of a Renewable Classroom PLUS project from Solar 4R Schools, the school has transformed the school's existing PV system into an interactive classroom tool while building a community of dedicated renewable energy educators. Energy monitoring of their PV system and system performance display at Solar4RSchools.org gives classrooms nationwide the ability to chart, graph and analyze the system’s performance for educational purposes. In addition, teachers at 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 classroom integration over time, every aspect of the support awarded by Solar 4R Schools was customized to 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 their classroom integration as efficient as possible. A touchscreen kiosk placed within the school is designed to engage school visitors, parents, students and teachers in the science and benefits of solar energy by allowing them to interact with the system's real-time energy production data and key facts about how solar power works.