The Sierra Club's Appalachian Ohio Group used a solar panel installation at Athens Middle School to kick off an alternative energy campaign that the group hopes to bring to Athens.
Third Sun Solar and Wind Power of Athens installed 48 solar panels Saturday on the southern wall of the school building as part of an open house organized by the local Sierra Club to introduce the club's nationwide Cool Cities Campaign to the Athens area.
As part of the campaign, more than 200 cities nationwide have signed an agreement to reduce carbon gas emissions to 1990 levels, said Loraine McCosker, chair of the Appalachian Ohio Group.
The panels will generate 2,400 kilowatts of electricity each month, which is the energy usage of more than three homes
said Chad Kister, a member of the Appalachian Ohio Group's executive committee.
All of this is going to be off-setting energy that would have to come from coal Kister said.
The installation was funded with a $4,000 grant from the Athens Foundation, a non-profit organization of Athens residents, McCosker said.
The installation will be incorporated into the seventh-grade curriculum using energy meters and instructional materials donated by the Ohio Energy Project, a non-profit organization from Columbus, said Ben Appleby, the Sierra Club member who wrote the grant proposal.
It makes solar energy more than words and pictures eighth-grader Max Taylor-Milner said of the installation. It makes it tangible.
The club is planning to present the Cool Cities campaign to the mayor and Athens City Council, but has not selected a date. If Athens joins the campaign, it would be the 10th Cool City in Ohio, she said.
Ohio can really make ourselves the Silicon Valley of solar energy
said Democratic senatorial candidate Sherrod Brown, who attended the event. We really will move forward more quickly than people think we will.
Mayor Ric Abel, county Commissioners Mark Sullivan and Bill Theisen, and Councilwoman Debbie Phillips, a Democrat running for state representative in the 92nd District, also spoke at the event.
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Third Sun workers Brandon Stephens and Randy Hatch place solar panels on the roof of Athens Middle School Saturday. The 48 solar panels were donated for the project and students can assess energy savings for the school online for educational purposes.
