Solar Panel Project At Mason High Aims To Bring Awareness
By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Even with an overcast sky, the solar panels on the roof of George Mason High School in Falls Church were absorbing enough sun on a recent morning to power the air conditioner in a classroom.
The newly installed panels are meant not just to help fuel the school's lights and cooling system but also to energize a growing movement to reverse global warming.
James Peterson, a recent graduate, spent hundreds of hours over the past year selling the idea of solar power to school officials and then fundraising to put the panels in place. Peterson said he wanted his alma mater to be an example.
"I wanted to educate the community and the students about alternative energies and how they are viable," he said.
Students such as Peterson, 18, are often the ones pushing environmental initiatives.
This past school year, an eighth-grader from Rachel Carson Middle School lobbied the General Assembly to ban phosphates from home dishwasher detergents, after learning through a science project that they are a major pollutant to the Chesapeake Bay. An environmental club at Hayfield Secondary School launched a schoolwide recycling program. And a group of sixth-graders at Arlington County's H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program won the President's Environmental Youth Award for organizing a community for recycling electronic waste, such as outdated computers and radios.
"There's a monumental shift going on in this generation of students. More and more younger students are fluent . . . in the language of green," said Rachel Gutter, education outreach coordinator for the U.S. Green Building Council in Washington, which certifies new buildings that embrace environmental concerns in energy generation and eco-friendly design.
Students often spearhead green projects because "they don't see the barriers," Gutter said. "An adult may think, 'That's too expensive.' The students are like, 'Let's just raise the money and get it done.' "
As awareness grows about environmentally friendly design, solar panels are appearing on school rooftops across the country, including in San Diego, Lexington, Mass., and Cleveland. But the technology, which requires some hefty start-up costs, has been slow to take hold in Washington area schools.
Among efforts in the county, a student group at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology has raised nearly $40,000 to invest in solar panels for the Fairfax County school.
In Falls Church, Peterson took on the challenge by himself. He first approached a teacher with his idea, then the principal. Robert Snee, outgoing principal at George Mason High, said it was "a brilliant idea" but questioned how a full-time student could accomplish such an ambitious project.
"I wondered what army of people he had behind him," Snee said.
There was no army, but Peterson did find support and help. His father, Jeff, a senior policy adviser for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and his mother, Ida, who has been an environmental activist in Falls Church, guided him along the way. But the parents mostly acted as cheerleaders, they said by phone last week.
After getting approval from schools Superintendent Lois Berlin, Peterson searched for a contractor. He found Switch, a Gaithersburg company that was enthusiastic about the project and willing to charge him what seemed to be a competitive price: $25,000.
After a presentation to School Board members, he got their approval. But the biggest challenge was still before him: raising the money.
With his parents' help, he drafted a pitch letter and sent it to local businesses and family friends.
"There is a scientific consensus that increasing levels of carbon dioxide are causing the planet to heat up. . . . Alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar power, are part of the solution to bringing global warming under control," the letter said.
Peterson followed up with phone calls. Although he encountered secretaries whose bosses always seemed to be "out of the office," he also found financial support.
It did not take long for checks to begin to flow in: a few big ones, including $5,000 from the Falls Church City Council, and some $20 checks from residents who had read about his effort in a newspaper.
To control costs, Peterson persuaded British Petroleum to donate 15 of the 18 panels. When his tally reached nearly $19,000, he decided it was enough for a slightly scaled-down version of the project.
On June 9, Peterson climbed onto the steel roof of his 1950s-era school to watch as the contractor installed 18 blue-and-black panels and positioned them to face south. Peterson said he was excited but already thinking about what he still needed to do: thanking and recognizing his supporters and making sure an educational display would be set up in the school to demonstrate how much power the panels generated.
In the fall, Peterson plans to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., where he wants to study materials engineering. He hopes to apply the environmental lessons he has learned, as well as his new skills in managing an ambitious project.
What he is leaving behind is something sustainable, said Robert C. Nissen, maintenance supervisor for the Fall Church city school system.
"It's something that will far outlast his time here," he said.
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