Solar Schools | Green Energy News

February 17, 2002 – Vol.6 No.47

SOLAR SCHOOLS.

Rooftops of classrooms seem to be a popular place to install solar photovoltaic systems. Aside from the high square footage of a typical school roof, a solar system becomes an educational tool that acclimates youth to alternative energy technologies at an impressionable age. Schools, too, are largely in use at the same time of day solar power is the most effective.

Atersa (Aplicaciones Tecnicas de la Energia, S.A.) a division of AstroPower operating in Spain, has been chosen by the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) to supply packaged solar photovoltaic power systems to 582 schools in Brazil that don’t have access to the power grid.

To be installed by locally trained technicians, the solar systems will provide power for lighting, refrigerators and television sets. Each package will include a number of solar modules up to 120 watts each, inverter, batteries, mounting hardware, and DC fluorescent lighting.

The entire project is valued at nearly $3 million.

Evergreen Solar and Japanese marketing partner Kawasaki Heavy Industries have installed a 70-kilowatt solar system on the Yachiyo Shoin High School in Yachiyo City Chiba Prefecture in Japan. As one of the largest systems installed on a school in the Prefecture, the 770 square meter array will supply power, in part, to the school’s lighting and air conditioning systems. The annual output from the system should be about 67,200 kilowatt hours and offset 11,140 kilograms of carbon emissions - the equivalent of carbon sequestration in a forest of over 28 acres.

Visit AstroPower at http://www.astropower.com/ , Evergreen Solar at http://www.evergreensolar.com/ .