Earth Day Dedication Set for April 22, 2010
Jackson, WI – 112 solar panels on 7 trackers will go on-line on Thursday April 22 to help power Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School. As the nation observes Earth Day 2010, Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School is proud to unveil the second phase of its aggressive Solar Energy program. The “Let the Sun Shine” ceremony will be held on the school grounds (3399 Division Road, Jackson) starting at 10 a.m.
The “Let the Sun Shine” ceremony will feature the unveiling and dedication of the solar trackers by students and faculty members. Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School is one of a handful of schools leading this initiative of renewable energy. The school has been involved with this effort since 2003 with several key objectives:
* Environmental Stewardship – reducing the school’s dependency on carbon fuels
* Financial Stewardship – reducing energy costs
* Public Awareness – addressing the benefits of renewable energy
* K-12 Curriculum- developing an across-the-curriculum energy unit in which students learn renewable energy basics and take part in teaching fellow students and others in the community
“It makes all the sense in the world for a high school to be aggressive with respect to renewable energy because there is no better place to teach the next generation about its importance in our everyday lives,” said Tom Mellon, Biology Instructor/Project Manager, Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School. “I am extremely proud of my students for all of their diligence and hard work in not only learning about it but for taking leadership in passing on their knowledge to others. The solar panels that we have are not fixed on a roof or on the ground but instead are on a tracker like a satellite dish that is mobile to follow the track of the sun. We now have eleven trackers, each with 16 solar panels. Not only are we generating electricity using the sun but we’re also showing our students and people of all ages that renewable energy is a thing of the future and actually of the present.”
Kettle Moraine Lutheran’s solar panels are capable of an overall estimated annual yield of 60,000 kW DC. This is enough electricity to power 10 homes, 24 hours-a-day for a full year.
“When we fully engage all eleven trackers, we’re estimating more than 10 percent of the school’s electricity will be covered by the solar additions,” said Mellon. “We think we can reduce our consumption and become more energy efficient and minimize our use of fossil fuels to an even greater degree. We’ve been able to be a leader in this type of project because we have a little bit more freedom than other school districts as an independent, parochial school supported by 10-12,000 members of local churches. In some ways we are blessed in the fact that we can be aggressive and engage in projects that maybe would be more difficult to do in a larger district.”
About Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School
Our Mission: Empowered by God’s Word, Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School educates, encourages, and equips God’s people for life and for eternity. Located just east of Jackson, Wisconsin, in rapidly growing Washington County, Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School’s eighty-acre campus testifies to the beauty of God’s creation and includes an outdoor environmental education area, a revolutionary wetland wastewater treatment system, and athletic fields galore. 430 students and 35 teachers interact with each other on our campus on a daily basis. For more information, please visit http://www.kmlhs.org.
