What a cool project! Read on …

Solar Education: Students to get dose of math with greenhouse vegetables

by Dale Rodebaugh
Herald Staff Writer

Credit: Jerry McBride/Herald Staff

A photovoltaic system installed at Escalante Middle School will make a campus greenhouse operational and allow students in Sharon Orr’s elective “greenworks” class to do more than grow vegetables.

The project is a collaboration of Durango School District 9-R, La Plata Electric Association, BP and Four Corners Solar. A similar photovoltaic system was installed at Bayfield Middle School last year.

Electricity generated by the Escalante photovoltaic system to power lights and fans in the greenhouse will offset the power the school ordinarily would have to buy. But beyond the immediate benefit, the system will open to students a panorama of educational disciplines, including mathematics, science and geography, Orr said.

It will work this way: A wireless link on the roof of the school will connect the Escalante photovoltaic system to the Fat Spaniel Technologies telemetry network. Fat Spaniel allows renewable-energy producers to display their energy production data and environmental credentials on the Internet.

There, Escalante students can see characteristics of their system and what it’s doing in real time or on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis. Information available in graphic form includes the amount of power being generated, ambient temperature, temperature of the photovoltaic cells and how much carbon dioxide the system is offsetting.

They also can compare their campus system with others connected to the Fat Spaniel network wherever they are. The comparisons they make would put to the test their ability and knowledge of mathematics and geography.

“Our greenhouse has been here for a couple of years,” Orr said. “But the photovoltaic system will get us up and going and allow us to grow vegetables year round.”

In preparation for planting, Orr’s students on Wednesday were weeding an outdoor plot next to the greenhouse for the arrival of topsoil and additives.

Eighth-grader Sheldon Wy-man, 13, wants to pick up pointers to apply to the care of strawberries and watermelons he’s growing at home.

Sheldon isn’t a stranger to agriculture because he’s familiar with the ranch in Craig where his great-grandfather and grandfather raised hay, potatoes and corn.

Reiley Waldo, 12, a seventh-grader, weeds and waters tomatoes and flowers at her house in Rafter J subdivision, southwest of Durango. She was enjoying the garden work Wednesday, which she said was more enjoyable than her physical education class.

Orr, who is scheduled to receive her master gardener certificate at the end of the month, would like to make the “greenworks” elective available to all Escalante students.

The class of 24 students will be doing a lot more than greenhouse work, Orr said. She plans to introduce vermiculture, composting, pollination, plant identification and food preparation before the year is over. In inclement weather, the students can investigate what’s happening on the Fat Spaniel network.

Mark Schwantes, manager of corporate services at LPEA, said the cooperative wants to place photovoltaic systems at the three middle schools in its service area that don’t have them – Miller in Durango and Ignacio and Pagosa Springs.

“Middle school is the best level to engage students,” Schwantes said.

Libraries and elementary schools are potential recipients of similar projects, he said. Photovoltaic systems would fit into educational programs at either schools or libraries as well as serve a utilitarian purpose.

Grants from LPEA and BP paid the cost of design, hardware and installation of the photovoltaic at Escalante by Four Corners Solar. LPEA, which owns and will maintain the system, contributed $12,445 and Orr received $10,000 from BP for the photovoltaic portion of the project. She received $10,000 from the Durango Foundation Educational Excellence for garden fencing and irrigation.

The Escalante photovoltaic system is connected to the LPEA grid, which means that whatever electricity is produced but not used by the greenhouse will be available to other customers. The 3,200 kilowatt hours of power the system should generate annually is about 38 percent of what the average home uses, Schwantes said.

Tags: Education, Environment, gardening

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