Students to catch school rays
DPS elementary one of six in U.S. to get solar panels
Jonathan Garcia, Rocky Mountain News
Published July 8, 2006 at midnight
The sun shone a little brighter for one inner-city elementary school Friday, when the 2006 National Solar Energy Conference kicked off its annual convention by donating a solar-powered electric system to Del Pueblo Elementary School.
Dubbed this year's "Legacy School," Del Pueblo, at 750 Galapago St., becomes one of six schools in the nation to receive the solar photovoltaic system.
The Legacy School program, created by the American Solar Energy Society in 2001, gives solar energy systems to schools in underserved areas of the city hosting the society's annual conference.
The society has a teacher from the school attend National Energy Education Development Project courses so he or she can go back to their school and help establish and maintain an energy-efficient building.
At Del Pueblo, that teacher was Carla Callahan. Callahan said it began when she learned the National Renewable Energy Laboratory was looking to give a school a grant of solar equipment.
"Being a native hippie, I said, 'Of course! I'd love it!' "
After training, Callahan taught what she learned to her students.
In addition to the donated solar system the school is receiving, Callahan began writing grant applications asking for money to help make her school more energy efficient.
She received about $200,000 in grant money to pay for the school's renovation. Lowe's Home Improvement alone donated $100,000, the largest grant in the company's history, said Del Pueblo principal Dan Villescas.
The money will be used for installing a tubular skylight and other renovations to save on energy costs.
"We're really interested in becoming the science and technology elementary school in DPS," Callahan said as the Boulder company Namaste Solar installed the solar cells on the school's roof Friday afternoon.
The six panels installed will provide less than 1 percent of the building's power, said Namaste Vice President Ray Tuomey.
"This is a very small system," Tuomey said. "This is more of an educational tool."
Namaste will also install a monitoring system for students to view the amount of power being produced by the solar panels.
Charles Kutscher, chairman of the Solar 2006 conference, said he thought the system was great for educational purposes: "This is definitely the future. This is exactly what we need to be less dependant on fossil fuels."
The Solar 2006 National Energy Conference will be run through Thursday at the Adams Mark Hotel. The conference is open to the public Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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