As the new school year gets under way at Martin Public Schools, district officials officially announced plans to make the campus energy self-sufficient at a groundbreaking ceremony Friday, Sept. 8.
As soon as the school’s new roof is in place, the first set of solar panels will be placed there as part of a deal with Verde Solutions expected to dramatically decrease the district’s electricity power bills.
Martin superintendent David Harnish told students at an assembly for most of the district’s students the district’s solar initiative had come together in the last 18 months and was going to make the school and the community better.
Harnish told the crowd of third- through 12th-graders, “This is not a project you can do overnight; it takes a lot of planning.”
Verde, an energy efficiency consulting firm based in Chicago, will install a 176-kilowatt array in about 1 month. The district has signed a contract to pay a monthly lease of $2,772.84 for 15 years, $33,274.08 annually. That price is expected to be lower than what the district currently pays annually for power in three years, given the expected annual rate increases.
The district will also own the panels after 15 years. If all goes according to plan, the second and third phases of the plan will add more panels, tailored to make sure the solar panels generate all of the energy the district needs, on average, throughout the year. Through “net metering,” the district will earn credit when producing more energy than it needs and draw down on that credit when the panels aren’t as productive.
For 2004 Martin High School graduate Zack Henderson, the assembly was something of a homecoming. He helped bring the project to the district after helping school board member Vince Tuinstra install a similarly financed solar project at Tuinstra Greenhouse in Shelbyville.
“We’re all very proud and excited to build a project like this—an innovative project for your school,” Henderson said at the assembly. “This project will build something for your future.”
Harnish said, “When Zach approached me with this and we started talking with Vince Tuinstra, we knew right away it was going to be something that was very important.”
Henderson told students, “Right now, the light in your light bulbs is powered by fossil fuels.” He added that the district’s recent switch to all-LED lighting inside and out will decrease the amount of energy the district uses. “Now everything left over, we’re going to produce with the power of the sun.
“Not only will these efforts help the environment, but they will also help dramatically save the community money which goes directly into your classrooms, into your education.”
MESSAGE
For Martin senior Austin Marsman, the project is exactly what he believes the school should be doing.
“It’s a proud and fantastic time to be a Clipper,” he told students. “Martin Public Schools is on the road to ecological sustainability.”
Marsman is the senior class president, but he’s also the founder of the after school club Martin Environmentally Sustainable Schools Action Group Elite, or MESSAGE.
He started it as a sixth-grader after he and several others watched the 2008 documentary “Kilowatt Ours.” The club’s faculty mentor at the time, Marky Spreitzer, organized the viewing; it ended up galvanizing the students.
“We were really appalled at devastation in Appalachia with the coal mining there and with climate change and all those concerns. We really felt something had to be done,” he said.
The group has since grown to as many as 25 members, meeting each Thursday.
“We’ve pushed for recycling,” Marsman said. “Now we have Paper Gators at the school for paper recycling. We’ve also done a lot of educational things with summer film festivals and such.”
At the assembly, he thanked Harnish for his leadership in pursuing projects like the solar array and praised the decisions of the school board, faculty, parents and students.
He said, “I’m grateful to be a part of the forward momentum for our community, our country and our world. With much excitement I stand here today with all of you. Together we can be a part of the solution in the historic time of environmental distress. Together, we will build a green future as we set sail with solar.”
Into the classroom
Henderson immediately knew the solar project was a golden opportunity to provide an up-close look at jobs in renewable energy.
“From Day 1, Dr. Harnish, Vince Tuinstra and I dreamed of providing an opportunity for Martin students to gain hands-on experience in this exciting field of green energy,” he said.
Verde Solutions founder and CEO Christopher Gersch told students their school must be good to have produced a graduate like Henderson.
Having grown up right when computers were introduced in classrooms, Gersch said he’d seen how their development and evolution had turned out to be the frontier of his generation; he saw green energy technology as the next similar frontier.
“Renewable energy is a great place to be; it’s exciting. You get to make money doing something that is very good for communities and the environment,” he said.
Brian Smith with The Michigan Career and Technical Institute said the district was working with administration to work out a way for Martin students to take classes at the high school that would transfer as credits at MCTI as part of its green technology program.
MCTI is an accredited post-secondary educational center for adults with disabilities in Michigan offering career assessment services that help students explore job options.
Christian Deuel is the program development coordinator at Community Action Allegan County. A former co-worker with Henderson, he was in attendance to support a friend and also to show support for partnering with the district.
“We have different energy efficiency programs,” Deuel said. “We’re extremely interested in how we can work with the district and our partners at MCTI to develop programs that speak to renewables and energy efficiency throughout the county.”
Henderson said his own path to Verde started after he’d taken a few courses at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. He worked as a contractor with some energy efficiency companies. He got into sales after those contracts expired and ended up founding his own company, Superior Renewable Solutions; that was recently acquired by Verde.
His advice to students at the assembly was to work hard and believe in themselves.
“And you can make your dreams come true,” he said.
Marsman said the MESSAGE club will keep pushing for change.
“Hopefully maybe alternative fuels for the buses. Sky’s the limit,” he said.
Contact Ryan Lewis at rmlewis@allegannews.com or (269) 673-5534.
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