Utah schools implement solar education

A huge new solar energy project that broke ground Monday in Utah isn’t so much about energy production as it is about education.

Johnson Controls installed a 5.3 kilowatt solar array on the roof of Salt Lake City School District’s Hillside Middle School Monday. It was the first of 73 arrays to be installed on schools throughout the state.

The Utah State Energy Program applied for United States Recovery and Reinvestment funds and got $10 million to install solar projects at schools around the state, said Johnson Controls account executive Bruce Munson.

“We won the contract because we offered something really different,” Munson said of Johnson Controls. “We are more focused on the education piece than the energy production.”

The company is working with the state program to provide curriculum to the schools, which will begin teaching a renewable energy program with a focus on solar technology, Munson said.

Johnson Controls is also training 200 teachers throughout the state on the technology, how to read the meters and use the online curriculum and lesson plans to help students do different projects comparing the solar systems on different schools throughout the state.

Because every system is the same size, Munson said, online programs will be valuable tools for teaching students to compare energy production in different geographical areas and do the science to find out why their school in Park City might produce more or less power than one in Moab.

He said there is curriculum for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The curriculum for high school students is obviously more advanced, he said. Students in those upper grades will be doing things like measuring the light waves while kindergartners will learn about where the sun’s light comes from.

“We do have some other schools outside of Utah,” Munson said. “And our intent is to hopefully take this program nationwide, so students can compare geographical differences around the country.”

While education is the primary focus of the program, the arrays will produce almost 400 kilowatts of power all together.

Each school will have a 5.3 kilowatt photovoltaic solar system, which is big enough to make an impression, Munson said. It’s much more than a single panel could do.

“It’s not a lot,” Munson said. “But it’s significant enough so they will all be generating energy.”

Pictured: technically, not the same project, this solar installation is another Utah school's project.