Ontario School Gives Students a Lesson in Clean Energy

Installing Solar Panels photo

Green Education: Learning by Installing Solar Panels and a Wind Turbine
Elliot Lake, Ontario, is a small mining town of about 12,000. The town's secondary school has about 500 students and they have been given a hands on education in clean energy this year.

Thanks to a C$50,000 grant from the Ontario Ministry of Energy's Community Conservation Initiative (CCI) and help from local partners, the school was able to install 12 solar panels and a vertical wind turbine producing 5.5 kilowatts of clean, renewable energy. It helps power the cafeteria kitchen, but the biggest benefit might be what the students learned.

More Green Schools to Come?

Ripples from the project have already spread throughout the region. Lindsay Killen says four other high schools in Northern Ontario, including a school in Sudbury 160 kilometers away, have contacted him for advice on how they can offset some of their lighting and heating costs while providing a valuable teaching opportunity for their students.

And, recently, the school has been named runner up in The Green Team Challenge from the 2008 Canadian Environmental Awards and Canadian Geographic.

Kudos to the students and teachers of the Elliot Lake school!

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More on Elliot Lake Clean Energy Project
Small-town students powered by clean-energy project