06/13/08 Solar Education

Solar Education. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. During my days in school a little sunshine falling on my desk usually meant I was headed for an unscheduled nap and an abrupt awakening by the teacher's ruler. But today a little sunshine is the basis for education. Bryce Smith with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation heads up a new education project called Solar 4R Schools. SMITH: We started the program in earnest back in 2004 and started with just a few schools and discovered that it was a very popular program. At the moment, we've got almost 100 schools in the program and we have invested more than a million dollars in small scale PV projects. PV stands for photovoltaic or light activated. Smith says his company helps supply these projects which are educational in nature as opposed to actual energy generation. SMITH: What we do is provide solar electric systems and educational tools to schools at no cost to the school thanks to the generosity of our funding partners. The schools in turn, in exchange for this donation agree to use the project as an educational tool both for the students and the teachers as well as for the surrounding community. The curriculum encompasses all school age groups and the hope is that by exposing students to the information early on that it will be assimilated more readily. SMITH: We think it's analogous to recycling programs that we all saw as a kid in the 80's. We had recycling programs in school and you just learned that it was a natural thing to do and now folks of that generation really don't question whether it's a reasonable thing to do  we just accept it as a normal part of our lives. So we're hoping that they will see them as a normal part of life and not as some strange technology. This will obviously prepare future generations for the understanding of renewable energy systems much like the 60's and 70's generations embraced computer technology. Smith says they are also hoping to educate up the ladder as well. SMITH: Even more than the kids and the teachers we are finding that there are 5 or 6 different stakeholders that we have in these projects that end up learning about the technology and hopefully when the technology is cost competitive in a few years we will have broken down some of these more hidden barriers to the distribution of the technology so that really what we are getting at. They are adding new schools to the program all the time and if you'd like more information, visit their website at solar4ourschools.org For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org www.solar4rschools.org