Solar for Africa and the Amazon – Solar Electric Light Fund – fighting climate change and poverty with solar - Give Now

Solar Advocacy – support the solar advocates doing work around the US – Vote Solar - Give Now

Solar for Turtles – La Tortuga Feliz – help support the next phase of solar work at the sanctuary and the turtles year round - Give Now

Solar Affordable Housing – Grid Alternatives – low income housing and green jobs in California - Give Now

Solar Education – 100 People Foundation – connecting more schools and profiling solar leaders in the US and around the world  - Give Now

This is by no means an exhaustive list…pick your solar cause, and let’s change our solar present and future together!

By Glen Kizer

Recently I was climbing over the solar panels on the roof of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (http://www.jcccnc.org ) when I realized why I love my job so much.  A lot of the time I get to have fun while I am working.  Alyssa Newman and I were on the roof with Ken Maeshiro, Special Events Coordinator and Facilities Manager from the Japanese Cultural Center and they were both doing very serious work having to do with the data collection system.  I really had no reason to be on the roof except that I had gone along with them.  I had my camera with me so I guess I was the “cameraman.”  In truth, we had more professionally taken pictures so I had to honestly admit to myself that I had climbed up onto this roof in the middle of Japantown (Nihonmachi) about a mile from downtown San Francisco because I like to climb on roof tops.

The array is about 30 kW so it should generate about 50,000 kWh of clean solar electricity every year, but we will be able to confirm exact numbers when the data collection system is up and running and on line.  This is another in a series of projects done around San Francisco as part of PG&E’s “Let’s Green this City” initiative.

Everyone at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center is very nice and they have covered all of the open space on their roof to get the most solar electricity out of the space they have available.  There are several interesting things about this project that I would like to share with you.

1.    When the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 hit, there were a lot of fires that burned down many homes and businesses.  The fire stopped at the area that is now Japantown.  Because of this, many people who had lost their homes moved into Japantown.  And because of the need for businesses to replace those lost in the Great Earthquake and subsequent fire, many homes were raised and businesses were put in underneath the raised homes…creating the mixed-use neighborhoods that modern day San Francisco is famous for today.

2.    They do things at the Japanese Cultural Center that I had never anticipated.  They have a number of cultural programs to help Japanese Americans learn about Japanese cooking and martial arts and arts and crafts to help them connect with their heritage.  They have programs of general interest like teaching about computers; and they open their facilities for many non-profit organizations around the City that are looking for meeting places.  They also have a huge gym and they have lots of exercise programs for families and children.

3.    Parking is a problem, so take lots of quarters…I mean a bag of quarters if you plan to stay long inside the Center.
4.    Solar City (and Alyssa) put in the touch screen kiosk so that people can learn about solar energy, read this blog site, and see live solar data from many of the PG&E Solar School Projects.  After one of the gym classes ended, many in the class drifted out into the main hallway and started reading the kiosk information.  I then noticed a funny thing.  They were all reading a story “Me-O-My-O Cleveland Ohio,” a blog story written by my son Alex about the ASES Conference in Cleveland, Ohio in 2007.  I called him in Washington DC to tell him that a bunch of parents and their kids were reading his story in downtown San Francisco.  The world really is getting flatter…if only we had more parking.

Story written by Jim DeCecco, and credit to Darrin Neuer for Photographs

It was a great day to go solar.  Here at Oceano Elementary School, which is about 90 miles north of Santa Barbara, California, we had a “Solar Celebration”.  The classrooms of sixth grade teacher, Mr. DeCecco and fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Hall celebrated the start of renewable energy at Oceano Elementary School.  The students cooked S’mores in their solar ovens, flew solar balloons, and analyzed the output from their new 1 kilowatt solar system provided by Pacific Gas and Electric Company. 
This was the culmination of a 2 month energy unit in which they learned about the different types of energy.  The students analyzed how they use energy and where the energy they use comes from.  In Mr. DeCecco’s class the students will use the information they have gathered to write and publish an energy guide later in the semester.

The school is making a huge push to lower their energy costs.  A school wide effort is being made in order to use energy more efficiently.  The school used $22,000 worth of electricity last year.  An agreement with the school district will allow Oceano Elementary School to receive half of the savings from reduced electrical consumption at the school.  Students have been monitoring classrooms to make sure lights are turned off when no one is in the classroom.  They are making sure all refrigerators at the school are full, even if it means putting jugs of water in them.  Because as the students researched, a full refrigerator uses less electricity than an empty refrigerator.    Students hope that using energy wisely will allow them to go on a few more field trips this year. 

 
Of course, our new solar panels will help reduce the cost of electricity.  Students will be monitoring the output of the panels through special software hooked up to computers in the classroom.  They will look at the electricity generated by the solar panels and then calculate the savings to the school.  Besides using math and science skills to calculate electrical output and savings, the students can monitor the carbon savings from their computers.  The software breaks down the carbon savings for the students and that information is fed into the classroom.  They then can use the information while studying about Global Warming.

   
All in all it was a great day for a solar celebration. 

Hi, I’m Lucy Whitmore and I go to Evergreen 6 in Paradise California. Today I’m going to tell you about a special trip that five kids from my school got to go on to Red Bluff.

Evergreen 6 is a PG&E solar school. We have our own solar array, which powers Evergreen’s computer lab. Sometimes, Evergreen is invited to go on special trips to teach other people about solar power. This year, one of the trips was to Red Bluff to teach other sixth graders about solar. There are about 96 kids that go to Evergreen, and fifty qualified to go on the trip because they had all their work in. Many people wanted to go, but only five were picked. I was really happy that I got to go. Two days after they announced who was going, the lucky five got to school at 6:00 in the morning. Once everyone got there, we left for Red Bluff.

When we got to the Red Bluff science fair, a day where all of Tehama county’s sixth graders went to the fairgrounds for lessons on hands-on science, everyone set up the solar equipment. Some people set up solar gadgets on the tables, and others put up the “Evergreen 6” banners and blew up a solar balloon, which eventually popped. When all of that was set up, we got out the solar ovens and started making cookies so that the kids could try solar cooked food. By the time we finished that, we only had a few minutes to practice our presentations before the first group of kids showed up.

The first time that we did the presentations, it was nerve-wracking. I expected some of the kids to goof off and start talking to their friends, but they all just sat and listened. They were all really interested. With each presentation, it got easier to project your voice and just speak to all of the people.

We taught the other sixth graders about solar gadgets, like solar cell phone chargers, and about how solar ovens work. We also taught them about what solar power could be used for in the future and how it could work. After each group had listened to the presentations, we let them come up and try the solar gadgets and taste the cookies. It was really great, because all the kids were smiling and looking really excited. Most of the people there had never seen a solar panel in real-life, and they really liked it.

Going to Red Bluff was really fun. Besides, about a hundred more people now know more about solar. Some of those people could go home and tell their parents or siblings about solar power, and then even more people know about solar! It feels really good to know that you’ve taught more people about something important in our world. Also, it was so much fun!

Lucy Whitmore, 11, is a sixth grader at Paradise Intermediate School in the Evergreen 6 program. She enjoys reading, playing with friends, and making tie-dye things.

Lucy was among five students who, using the NEED philosophy, taught various aspects of solar energy to their peers in a neighboring county. Her contribution to the Red Bluff Solar day was to talk about large-scale solar, solar concentration, and alternative transportation. (Using solar to power small electric vehicles.)

Story written by Glen Kizer

PG&E has 100 solar school installations either completely in or being installed as I type this and I decided it was a good time to take a tour of some of the schools south of the Bay Area in order to connect with some new principals and to visit some of the newly installed systems.  At first, I dreaded the long drive, but by the time I pulled out of Pescadero I felt energized.  Here is a personal diary of my trip.  I apologize for interjecting myself into this story, but I couldn’t help myself.  Later, students at each of these schools will write their own blog story so this is kind of my introduction to those blogs that are yet to be written.

Salinas

I love Salinas.  It is a wonderful place.  Everywhere you look there are enormous farms where almost any kind of food is grown.  It is known as the “Romaine Lettuce Capital of the World,” but I saw lots of other things being grown in these huge fields.  Everything is laid out in this huge valley with hills on both sides and this lush agricultural empire covering the valley in all directions.  It is a beautiful sight to see.

The PG&E Solar School in Salinas is appropriately enough inside a garden behind the Monterey Park Elementary School.  It was one of the first schools in the PG&E program.  Chris Banks is the principal and she was the principal at the time the installation was completed in 2005.

Monterey Park Elementary School includes grades k-6 and houses 566 students and 24 teachers.  100% of the teachers have their full credentials.  The average teacher experience level is 20 years!

Gilroy

A half hour north of Salinas I came upon the City of Gilroy, California.  Gilroy is great.  It is the “Garlic Capital of the World” and everywhere you go there are signs and pictures of garlic.  The solar installation there is one of the 2007-2008 schools.

James Maxwell is the principal and Rob Mendiola is the key contact for us on the district level.  Mr. Mendiola coordinated the installation.

The Gilroy High School campus is huge.  It is Grades 9-12, but there are more than 2,500 students on this one campus.

School has not yet started for the Fall, 2008 session so everyone was running around getting everything ready.  One of the young women from the soccer team was there with her mother, Katherine McBride, who is a local realtor with Coldwell Banker and they agreed to pose for a picture in front of the solar panels.  Thanks guys.

Watsonville

Leaving Gilroy I went over the hill on the 128 to Watsonville.  Watsonville is a wonderful place.  The cities in the valley base a large amount of their economic life on farming.  Cities on the coast base a lot of their economic livelihood on tourists, fishing, and boating.  Watsonville has it all.  It is on the Pacific Ocean and there are people who are connected directly to the water, but there are huge farms.   I even followed one of the trucks loaded with something, but I could never get close enough to get out of my car to ask the driver what was in the boxes.  (Is it illegal to take pictures while driving?)

The PG&E Solar School in Watsonville is Ohlone Elementary and like Monterey Park in Salinas it was installed in 2005.  Unlike Monterey Park, Ohlone has a different principal now than when the installation was originally completed.  The Principal at Ohlone is Gloria Miranda and I have included a picture here that I took in her office.

There are 437 students in the k-5 Ohlone school.  It is a wonderful school and a beautiful campus.  All of the teachers are so nice.  When I first got there, Gloria was walking around the campus and I went out to find her.  As I walked around the buildings, teachers kept volunteering to help me find her.   They were so busy trying to get ready for the students coming back to school this month and yet they went out of their way to try and help me.

But the most interesting thing about my visit was the farm directly across from the school.  It was an unusual plant growing for what looked like miles so I asked what was the plant growing there.  The answer surprised me.  Artichokes!  For the first time in my life I was up close and I almost touched a growing artichoke plant.

(I only touch vegetables with a fork.)

Seaside

Down south on CA-1 just a few miles is a cluster of three beautiful communities on Monterey Bay.  The largest of these three communities is Monterey which has a huge waterfront and a fantastic aquarium.  The smallest city is Sand City.  I stopped in Sand City to buy a Diet Coke and there is sand everywhere.  The final city is Seaside where the PG&E Solar Schools Program has a “solar on a stick” installation at Highland Elementary.  It is in the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District.  The students are “The Superstars!”

Highland has a new principal, Ms Taffra Purnsely, and the day I was at the school was also the first day of class.  The phones went out and the web site was overloaded and was failing to load.  But everyone seemed calm even with all of the “first day back at school” gyrations.  The school administration seemed to take everything in stride.

The school consists of grades k-5 and has 437 students.

Santa Cruz

Driving back up CA-1 and past those artichoke farms in front of Ohlone Elementary in Watsonville, I came to De LaVeaga Elementary in the ocean front community of Santa Cruz, California.  De LaVeaga consists of k-5 classes and has 577 students.  De LaVeaga also has a new principal, Ms Ruth Smith.  De LaVeaga is another of the 2004-2005 schools in the first round of the PG&E Solar Schools Program.

What I love about this solar school project is the way they had the installation sited in their school garden.  It is a beautiful setting, but they are serious about their garden.  Many of the PG&E “solar on a stick” installations have gone into gardens according to teachers because “the plants reach up to grab the sunlight in order to grow in the same way that the PV panels reach out to capture sunlight in order to generate electricity.”  This one is a particularly nice one.

Pescadero

Continuing north up the CA-1 (I did stop at the University of California at Santa Cruz which is one of the most beautiful campuses I have ever seen.  There are redwood trees and some of the buildings are very contemporary and the entire campus overlooks the same Monterey Bay.), I drove by some of my favorite parts of California and I love California.  Driving along the coast to Pescadero, there are waves crashing onto beaches and rocks and there was a fantastic blue sky and a whole lot of sun.

The school is technically an elementary + middle school combined to be the Pescadero Elementary and Middle School with 195 total students.  Patty Able is the principal and I took a picture of her at her desk and I have included it here.

My favorite story of the day took place in Pescadero.  I stopped for a Diet Coke at a restaurant in downtown Pescadero.  I was not 100% sure how to get to the school so I asked some young women at a booth in the restaurant if they knew where the elementary school was located.  They said “Go down this street and turn right.  You can’t miss it.  There is a huge solar array on a pole in front of the school.”

We had become a landmark.  Later as I drove away after meeting with Ms Able, I saw the young ladies walking down the street and they all waved to me like they were glad they could help.  Pescadero is a small town 5 minutes from the Pacific Ocean and yet the nice small town people could be living in Ohio or Illinois or Texas.  I love big cities and there is a lot to do in San Francisco and Oakland and San Jose, but those big hearted small town people are hard to beat.

And that was my entire trip.

The National Energy Education Development Project (NEED) has a motto – “kids teaching kids.” In June, this motto was changed to “kids teaching teachers.” John Atkins, principal of Botany Bay Environmental School in Sydney, Australia visited the United States in an effort to learn more about sustainability and “green” education in the US. Chris Graillent from the California Department of Energy was instrumental in connecting Mr. Atkins to contacts in the “states.” Evergreen 6, a PG&E Solar School in Paradise California, was just one of several stops he made. As part of Paradise Intermediate School, Evergreen 6 has about 90 sixth graders that have learned several ways to reduce their impacts on the environment and to share those ways with others.

As they did for several classes of third graders, E6 students shared their knowledge about a number of topics with Mr. Atkins:

• Facts about our sun
• Sunscreen facts and rules for application
• Solar cooking
• The role solar cooking could play in many parts of the world that have energy shortages
• Rain water harvesting
• Composting with worms (vermicomposting)
• Composting by pile (thermocomposting)
• Solar energy today and tomorrow
• Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars (model)
• Alternative transportation (Hybrids, electrics)
• Various grants received (PG&E Solar Installation, PG&E “Bright Ideas,” Paradise Community Foundation Recycling/Composting grant, California Schools Garden grant)
• Parts of a solar system
• Solar orientation
• Fresnel lens
• Net metering

Mr. Atkins was an outstanding “student” and was very generous in his questions and interest. Evergreen 6 students were lucky enough to spend a few hours talking about and questioning how things are different (and the same) in Australia. Then they were treated to a slide show on the Botany Bay Environmental School and some of their outings.

Students were surprised to find out that one rule, at this school in Australia, is that you may not participate in outside recess without a hat – it is compulsory. In the United States, hats have actually been banned from many schools for a number of reasons. However, when you think about what hats and sunscreen can prevent, it seems obvious to require hats outside.

If being able to spend the morning with this fantastic teacher from Oz wasn’t enough, Mr. Atkins presented the school with a boomerang, and personal lessons on how to throw one. After that, he was into his hybrid rental and off to another school visit.

The students and staff of Evergreen really felt fortunate for the visit. We felt validated that what we are doing is unique and worthwhile. We also learned so much from our virtual field trip to Australia. Now if we can just figure out how to take a trip down there….