By Stephanie Ghertner

On Thursday, June 25^th, Fire Station #64 in Richmond, California celebrated the installation of a solar thermal system. Funded by PG&E, the system consist of three 4’ x 6’ solar collectors and one 120 gallon storage tank. The system has the potential to save the City of Richmond up to $1,300 per year.

This project was completed through strong partnerships with neighborhood resources. The solar collectors were manufactured locally by Heliodyne, headquartered right across the freeway from the fire station, and the system was installed by SunWater Solar, also based in Richmond. Solar Richmond, a non-profit that serves the community through green-collar job training and placement for low-income residents, also contributed to the installation. Diverse stakeholders in city government, local business, and the non-profit world worked together to make a positive and sustainable impact on the community at large, and the result was no less than impressive. This system is exciting not only because it will offset 1.95 tons of carbon dioxide each year but also because of its complementary benefits – a greener Richmond and a healthier California, job creation and vocational training, education and empowerment.

PG&E is thrilled that Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Assistant City Manager Leslie Knight, along with representatives from Richmond Build, Heliodyne, and SunWater Solar were able to attend the ribbon-cutting event and celebrate the Richmond Fire Department’s commitment to a clean energy future. It was a great morning and many thanks to all participants!

By Glen Kizer

I was listening to this old man in a restaurant the other day.  He was complaining about President Obama and his plans for encouraging the development of renewable energy in the US. He was talking to his two granddaughters (I may be older than he is and maybe those are his daughters, but he sounded old so I call him the “old man”) and his daughters/granddaughters seemed to pay no attention to him so he started to include other people in the restaurant in his oration.  He did not seem to like President Obama and he clearly hated the thought of renewable energy, especially solar energy.  He loves nuclear energy and hopes we build a bunch of new nuclear power plants “like they have in France.”  Of course, at another point in the conversation he said he hated the French, but I let it go because I am not sure he understood that the French people he hates actually live in France, home of all of those nuclear plants that he loves.

The thing that prompted this blog posting is this one thing he kept repeating over and over again about how it would require 11,000 acres of solar panels to equal the amount of electricity we currently get from nuclear plants.  (Factoid:  1,000 megawatts of solar electricity = entire production from all of the nuclear plants in the US).  He never said how much space our current list of nuclear power plants takes up, but he implied it was not very much.  He made it seem like it is 11,000 acres of solar = zero land space for nuclear.  I have been to several nuclear power plants and they seem to take up more space than he was letting on, but he was too old to argue with on more than one point and they don’t take up huge amounts of space so I let it go.  Instead I told him simply that I disagreed with him about the need for the 11,000 acres.  He grew very angry.  “How can you argue with that?  It is a fact.”  He kept saying that over and over “It is a fact.”  Later I did find that fact on a web site promoting nuclear energy, but what the old man and the web site fail to take into consideration is the land being utilized by our nuclear power plants is not available for any other use.  The land is fenced off.  Most solar panels are installed in such a way that they take up almost zero land area.  There are lots of solar panels on elementary and middle and high school buildings and parking lots and playgrounds.  This brings me to Milpitas High School in Milpitas, California.

We did a solar school project at Milpitas High School as part of the PG&E Solar Schools Program.  But why I bring up Milpitas High School is they also have a 1 MW PV system that takes up essentially zero land space.  The 1 MW is all in a carport.  So when the old man looks at the pictures in this blog story he will see that of the 1 MW in solar panels none of them are sitting on the ground.  The solar panels are overhead providing protection from the sun for the cars in the parking lot.  Not only do they take up no ground space they provide a benefit of shade in areas where shade is needed.  These pix really hurt his argument and I gave him the blog site so I am hoping he is reading this.  It won’t make a difference to his belief that nuclear energy is the greatest thing in the world and solar energy and wind energy, in his mind, are not that great, but it may keep him from ranting about the 11,000 acres of land that he argues would be permanently taken up by solar panels.

He might even counter with the argument “But how many high schools are there in the US that could do what Milpitas did?”  The answer is there are more than 21,000 high schools in the US, and I am sure we can find another 999 to add a 1 MW installation.  And what about the junior high schools and elementary schools and colleges adding their own 1 MW of solar electricity?  And what about government buildings?  And what about the private sector?  It is going to blow the old man’s mind, but it is possible to supply all of the electricity we use in the US every year from solar panels that would be installed on building rooftops in a way in which you, or me, or the old man would never see them.  I am not recommending we do this, but it is possible and much more likely than covering 11,000 acres of the US with solar panels.

The pix of the car ports may seem odd to you right now, but there are so many of these huge car port/solar electricity installations going in on schools right now that a year from now it will seem very natural.  It will not surprise you to see them at the schools in your area.  They are the new “hot solar installation” going on in the US on schools.

A huge advantage to the solar electricity carport is the shade and/or protection from the rain and snow and hail that it provides to cars in the parking lot.  For schools in California, shade is valuable.  For schools in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, shade is a good thing, but protection from snow is even more important.  But regardless of the secondary use of the car ports, the primary use is to generate electricity from renewable resources WITHOUT TAKING UP ANY LAND SPACE.  And it works.  Milpitas High School proves that it works.

I went over this with the old man, but I didn’t have any pix with me.  When he reads this blog he will see a lot of pix and he should be convinced.  He may not be.  After all, when I left him at McDonalds that day he was complaining about the fact that the French Fries are not listed as Freedom Fries.  At first I thought he was caught in the 1950s, but it may just be 2002.  He was so upset about my story about Milpitas High School that I thought he might pull out a gun and start shooting so I told him it was in France and he quieted down.  I did not want him looking up the school’s phone number and calling the school to complain about how liberal they are.  He will never call France.  He hates the French even though he loves their nuclear power plants and their deep fried potatoes.  He is a simple man…really simple.

By Maryan Cammarata

These are the voices of Oceano Elementary. They wanted to share their experience with solar energy with you. There are more solar schools and more solar voices out there. The future looks to burn bright.

Joseph Garay

My name is Joseph Garay, and I’m in the 6th grade at Oceano Elementary School. I live in the town of Oceano. I live with my grandpa, grandma, and uncle in a two story house.

My class has spent a lot of time learning about energy. We have learned how solar panels work and what they do and what they are made of. We have learned about energy for two months. We learned about 3 types of energy called thermal, radiant, and electrical. Our class learned about different sources of energy: solar, wind, and fossil fuels. We learned new ways to save energy. We wrote an eight page energy guide and printed 1,000 copies for our community. We monitored the output of our new 1-kilowatt solar array. Our class wrote letters to the editor of our local newspaper about solar energy. A presentation by REC solar company was done explaining how solar electric systems work. I liked learning about energy because it’s interesting and tells you how to save money in the future. I liked it when we make s’mores from our solar cookers made out of pizza boxes and aluminum foil. This is what we have done for two months. I have become an energy expert.

Rafael Lopez

Solar energy rocks! My name is Rafael. I am in the 6th grade at Oceano Elementary School. The town is named Oceano. I live in a house with 3 rooms. I live with my dad, mom, 2 sisters, and my big brother. That is six people all together.

We have done lots of energy activities here in Oceano. We had lots of neat projects and more cool and fun things. We learned that there are lots of different types of energy. There is light, thermal, and radiant energy. We made energy guides. We had 1,000 copies made to educate our community. We also got neat solar panels donated form PG&E. We wrote a letter to the editor, and it was printed in the local newspaper. We had a guest from REC solar company. He showed us a lot of cool and surprising facts about solar panels.
It has been fun learning about solar energy and about solar panels. We got to make s’mores, solar houses and more. One thing I learned is that they test the solar panels by shooting high speed marbles at it. Our country will become a solar leader in the future.

Arlene Mendoza

My name is Arlene. I am in 6th grade. I go to Oceano Elementary School. I live in Oceano. I live with my mom, dad, brother and my sister. There are five people in my family.

This year we have learned about energy. We took notes about energy. The types of energy that we leaned about are thermal, radiant, and electrical energy. The different sources that we learned about energy are solar, wind, and fossil fuels. We learned about using less energy. We learned to turn off the lights when you are not using them. We wrote an 8 page energy guidebook. They printed 1,000 copies for the community. We have a one kilowatt solar system at our school. We wrote letters to the editor of our local newspaper about the solar system. We had a presentation by REC solar company explaining how the solar electric system works.

I learned that solar panels have to face south so they can receive sunlight all day. It was fun learning about energy. Maybe I can use this knowledge to work for an energy company someday.

Ilver Dominguez

I am Ilver Dominguez. I am in the sixth grade. I go to Oceano Elementary School. I live with my mom, my two little brothers, and my dad. There are 5 people in my family.

We’ve learned about energy. We’ve been studying about energy for 2 moths. We’ve learned about 3 different types of energy: thermal, radiant, and electrical. We made an 8-page guide. There will be 1,000 copies in the 5 cities area. We’ve learned ways to save energy like using solar panels, which will save our school about $500 a year on our electrical bill. A power strip will kill ghost power. You can get free light and heat from the sun by putting windows facing east, west, and south. We had a party with PG&E. We had questions to answer during to party.

Learning about energy has been great. I liked learning about the solar panels. Solar panels are made from silicon. The solar panels will work for 25 years. Our solar panels have offset 580 pounds of carbon dioxide this year, and the solar panels are saving us money for the school. PG&E donated our new solar panels. I had a fun time learning about energy.

Leslie Cerda

My name is Leslie. I’m in 6th grade. I go to Oceano School. I live in Oceano. I live with my mom, my dad, my brother, and my little sister.

We learned about the different sources of energy, like wind and solar. We learned about ways to use less energy. We wrote letters to the editor of our local newspaper about solar energy.

I like learning about energy because I learned so much about electricity and how to save energy. Thank you for teaching us about energy. I learned a lot.

Jessica Lopez

My name is Jessica. I’m in 6th grade. I go to school at Oceano Elementary school. I live in the city of Oceano, CA. I live with my mom, my dad, my cousin, my 2 brothers, and my sister. There are 7 people in our family.

We learned a lot this year. We had two months of energy. We learned about thermal energy, radiant energy, motion energy, and electrical energy. We learned about different sources of energy like solar wind, and fossil fuels. We learned how to use less energy. For example, we learned how solar panels could save money. We wrote an 8-page energy guide about solar panels to show how they work. We had a celebration at school when we got our new solar panels. We wrote a letter of thanks to an editor of the local newspaper for helping our school.

There are many things I enjoyed in the Unit. I liked to see the little house with the fan we made with my solar panels because I like the little fan moving. I liked helping the community. I learned a lot of things about energy.

Julieta Espinoza

My name is Julieta Espinoza. I am in 6th grade and I am 12 years old. The school I go to is Oceano Elementary school. I live with my family in Oceano. I live with my mom, dad, brother, and my 3 sisters in Oceana. We all live in a medium sized house.

I have learned a lot this year. We have taken notes on energy for 2 months. The types of energy we have learned about are thermal, radiant, and electrical energy. The different sources of energy we have learned about were solar energy, wind energy, and fossil fuels. We have written an 8-page energy guide. We printed 1,000 copies for the whole community. We had a solar celebration too. We have monitored the output of our new 1 kilowatt solar array. We also wrote letters to the editor of our local newspaper about solar energy. We had a presentation by REC Solar Company explaining how the solar electric systems work. These are just some of the things we have done this year with energy.

The thing I really liked this year was the solar celebration. We did that with PG&E. We answered some questions, did some activities using computers and solar balloons, and we got to eat cake. The cake was awesome. But I liked solar-cooked s’mores too. We had a fun time with the solar celebration. I really like all the things we are learning about energy, and doing activities with PG&E, and REC this year.

Liseth Moreno

My name is Liseth Moreno. I go to school at Oceano Elementary school. I’m in the 6th grade. I live in the city of Oceano, California. I live with my mom, my dad, and my brothers.

We learned a lot this year. We had a two month unit about energy. We learned about thermal energy, radiant energy, and electrical energy. We also learned about solar, wind, and fossil fuels. We learned ways to use less energy. My class wrote an eight page energy guide. There were 1,000 copies printed for the community. They’re in English and Spanish. We had a solar celebration, and we had solar cookers, solar balloons, and some people from PG&E came to our class to talk about solar energy, and there was cake. We wrote letters to the editor about solar energy and sent to our local newspaper. We had a presentation by one of the workers of REC solar company. He explained how solar electric systems work.

I liked learning about energy because we do fun projects that include solar energy. My favorite project was the solar cookers. We made s’mores with them. Solar energy saves people. I will never forget that. All of this has helped the community. Maybe someday I will live in a solar home.

Kyla Salisbury

My name is Kyla Salisbury. I’m in the sixth grade and I go to Oceano Elementary school. I live with my mom. She is 31. My brother and my sister is 17, and I’m the youngest. I’m 11 years old. I live on the Mesa in a community neighborhood. It’s almost like a city inside a city.

When my class wrote an energy guide, I was very happy that 1,000 copies were going out all over the place. The guide tells you how to save mony and gives you helpful tips about the cost of solar panels. It tells you how the sun makes electricity. When Seth (the solar specialist) came to our class, he told us what he does for a living and what he used to do for a living. I think his job is important for the environment. Thank you for teaching us about energy.

Angelica Gagliano

My name is Angelica Gagliano. I am in the sixth grade and attend Oceano Elementary school in Oceano, California. This year, under the guidance of Mr. DeCecco, or class has been studying about energy. I live with my mom. Her name is Karen. She is 48 years old and with my brother. His name is Taj, and he is 5 years old.

Our studies this year have included learning about the different types of energy which have helped our class understand about ways to save energy and money at the same time. We are learning about some of the most important types of energy like: thermal, radiant, and electrical. We are also learning about the different sources of energy such as: solar, wind, and fossil fuels. We have discovered ways to use less energy. One example would be before leaving on vacation with your family instead of leaving the refrigerator empty, place jugs of water into the refrigerator. It will save money and energy.

Our class calls our teacher Mr. “D.” Mr. D’s sixth grade class wrote the first ever Oceano Energy guide. One thousand copies went into circulation throughout our community. Recently our school hosted a solar celebration. We did a lot of cool things which included eating s’mores that were made using solar energy to melt the chocolate. Employees from the PG&E company came to our solar celebration and added to our solar education by talking about saving energy and money by using the sun. Our school, Oceano Elementray, has a one kilowatt solar system that was installed in November. We have offset 586 pounds of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. Our class wrote letters to the editor of the local news paper about solar energy. We also listened to a presentation by REC Solar Company explaining how solar electric systems work.

I enjoyed writing the Energy Guide. The Energy Guide includes useful tips on how to save our district energy and money. I have learned a lot and found it very exciting to write about what I have learned. I enjoyed educating my family and being part of the “Solar Generation.” Solar panels are very cool. And I am amazed by what I have been able to learn.

Jessica Landeros

My name is Jessica. I’m in 6th grade, and I go to Oceano Elementary School. I live in Oceano with my family of 6. I live with my parents, and two siblings, and my grandmother. I enjoy living with my family in Oceano.

Our class has learned many ways to save energy. We took notes on how to save energy for two months. We have learned about the different types of energy such as thermal and radiant energy. Our class learned about different sources of energy, like solar, wind, fossil fuels and more. Our teacher told us that we can save a lot of money by using energy wisely. Our 6th grade class have written an Energy Guide to get published. We are very proud of these projects.

“A School With A View”

By Glen Kizer.

Starr King Elementary School is in San Francisco, California and is one of the newest installations in the PG&E Solar Schools Program.  We will do a lot more with this school later on, but for now I want to share something with you about the setting for this fantastic school.  Sure the Principal is great.  His name is Chris Rosenberg and under his leadership the school has one numerous awards.  Sure the teachers are great.  Our primary “solar” instructor is Steven Tamsky (that is him with the guitar) and he is one of the nicest people you will ever talk to.  But it is the view from that school that I cannot believe.

It sits on Potrero Hill.  Potrero Hill is an actual hill in San Francisco and yet it gives you the feeling that it is some remote land.  When you walk out the front door of the school you can see the Golden Gate Bridge off in the distance where the Pacific Ocean meets the SF Bay.  When you turn to the left you can see Candlestick Park where the SF Giants play baseball along the southern part of the SF Bay.  In 1835 there were cattle grazing on this hill and when you look around you can believe it.  It is a wonderful spot in the middle of this huge city.

Mr. Tamsky is going to write a blog story when he returns to school this fall, but I wanted to give you all a few pictures of this wonderful school in the San Francisco Unified School District.  PG&E paid for the entire cost of the project including teacher training.  The view is free.