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Solar Panels Providing Energy, Education to Washington Island Schools

During this dark part of the year, a lot of people don’t even want to think about how often they’ll see the sun. But students at Washington Island Schools are not only looking at how often the sun comes out, they’re tracking how much power they’re producing because of it.

In October, the Washington Island Electric Co-Op proposed and paid for the installation of two solar arrays just northeast of the school. Under the direction of teachers Larry Hermanson and Steve Waldron, both of whom attended a one-day workshop in Wausau to learn about the panels, students have been using the data from the solar panels to translate math and science concepts into reality.

“Our goals for the solar panels are to use them to apply what we’re leaning in the math and science classrooms and to learn about alternative energy and energy conservation,” said Hermanson.

Photo submitted by Washington Island Schools.

Hermanson said he’s taught a lesson comparing and contrasting the way the panels produce power to the process of photosynthesis in plants, and he’s planning to cover the physics of solar panels and energy generation when his students get to next semester’s physics class.

“But I’m more excited about the math side of it,” said Hermanson, who worked as a mechanical engineer for 20 years before becoming a teacher. “To make the math real is gonna be really cool.”

One of the ways Hermanson can make the math real is by utilizing a tracking website which is linked to the solar panels. The website stores data about how much power the panels are producing on an hourly basis and allows students to track hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly power production using graphs.

The website keeps track of each panel independently, which is important as one panel is fixed and the other is mounted on a base which allows it to track the sun, allowing students to see the differences between each type of panel. The website also records weather information for each day.

“So if a student asks me ‘What’s that dip in the graph?’ we can go look and say ‘Oh, it’s a cloud,’” said Hermanson.

Hermanson said the students have really taken to the project and are quickly figuring out the key concepts behind solar power.

“They’re eager to learn more. A few of the students have taken a real ownership in the project,” said Hermanson. “One student in particular has taken initiative to troubleshoot some of the start-up issues.”

Since they were turned on in late October, the panels have produced 414 kWh of power, roughly enough to run an electric water heater for a month. Hermanson said it would take about 20 to 25 years for the panels to pay for themselves if the district had paid for the installation, but the district will see a benefit this summer outside of the educational opportunities.

“We expect that we’ll generate more power than we use several days during the summer when the building is empty,” said Hermanson. “On those days, we’ll be supplying energy to the co-op for a net credit to our power bill.”

Anyone who wants to take a look at how much power is being generated by the school’s solar panels can head to the tracking website, which is linked from the educational links section of the school’s main website.