Solar panels part of environmental program
School monitoring how much power it is generating
Tommy Douglas Collegiate’s Off the Grid program gives new high school students the opportunity to learn about the scientific and social impacts of a changing environment.
As part of that program, the Saskatoon school installed 12 fully functional solar panels on the roof to teach students about environmental science.
“Almost at every level, we’re teaching about sustainability and environmental issues,” said teacher Mike Prebble, who is in charge of the class. “This is just giving a different way to teach about it and to learn about it.”
The solar panels, laid out in two rows of six on the roof of the school gym, differ slightly in their capacity. They’re plugged into the school’s power grid and offset a small amount of the power it uses. Monitor screens in the school show how much power the panels are generating.
Prebble said the best month since the panels were installed in the fall was May, when they contributed about one-twelfth of the school’s power usage.
Matthew Hahn, a student in this first class of the Off the Grid program, said it’s important to address issues of environmental science and climate change in school because they aren’t going away anytime soon.
“Climate change is real ... inland, in Saskatchewan, we don’t notice climate change as much,” Hahn said. “The problems are there, and they ’re happening, and people can’t just ignore them.”
Off the Grid has also done work to encourage students at the school to be more environmentally friendly through public compost bins, and reducing energy use by removing unnecessary lights from the halls.
The program is starting to raise funds for 28 more solar panels, which would bring the total to 40.