Solar: Phase 1!

As the plan to go solar marched on, regular monday meetings were held by the officers, including some outside sources, that became close-knit affiliations, such as Evan Huggings from Inter Connections 21 (IC21), and Shelly Simonton from the Jackson Hole Energy Sustainability Project (JHESP).

The major issue to overcome was funding - solar panels are expensive and we knew that. We decided to apply for a grant from JHESP to fund phase 1. To apply for such a large amount of money, we had to put in countless hours of research, writing and re-writing a business plans, talking to Shelly and Evan and other adults who were involved to have them check over our writing, and finally finalizing our plan.

When the day came to actually apply for the grant, it had been decided ask for $50,000, not to exceed $52,000. We showed up at the Town Hall prepped with grant copies in hand and anxious nerves, expecting to be sitting in on a very formal delegation meeting with powerful figures from our community. Once we were ushered into the meeting room, the nerves were mostly shaken off. The members were very friendly and inviting, wanting to know all about our club and our story.

Being highschoolers, often you can be looked down on by adults, or not taken seriously. This was a fear of ours, that the council would think we were making fools of ourselves and asking for something way out of our grasp. In contrast, they were impressed by our drive and motivation, and amazed at our ability to write a successful business plan being just sophomores in high school.

After giving a relatively short presentation of our plan, the council approved the funding unanimously. This shocked us to a point, we had prepared for an expected some intense questioning and doubt.

A huge burden was lifted from our shoulders. After working so hard all summer preparing for this day, we now had the funding to purchase and install the panels that would offset energy use of the lights and the scoreboard.

The story definitely does not end there, we then had to go through the whole process of actually installing and monitoring the panels. Luckily the school district, mainly Kevin Thibeault (TCSD Director of Facilities) took care of the bargaining, pricing, hiring, and payment of the workers and panels.

Our job from there was relatively simple, sit back, relax, and wait for the panels to start generating energy.

 

Here is a physics class viewing the instillation of the solar panels during class.

 

 

Here is the solar panels covered in snow in the deep Jackson winter.

 

Here are a few SFS members along with Shelly Simonton (JHESP), Evan Huggins (IC21), Mayor Mark Barron, Brian Tenabe (Lower Valley Energy), Dan Butcher (TCSD), and Larry Pardee (Lower Valley Energy).

-Karli