Princess Margaret School in Surrey sits a little taller under the sun after a student-led installation of a roof-top solar photovoltaic system, which will offset electricity costs and lower carbon emissions. The idea for the system began two years ago by the Grade 10 Environmental Club, who set to work raising the necessary funds, with a grant from SolarBC (no longer available). After a whole lot of fundraising the time finally came in May 2013 to purchase 24 Canadian Solar 230 watt modules (panels) from Terratek Energy, a renewable energy contractor that specializes in the design and installation of solar hot water, solar PV, wind and geoexchange systems. Through a partnership with BCIT students in the electrical trades apprenticeship program, which is held at Princess Margaret, led the installation under the guidance an supervision of Terratek.
"Young people are the future of the electrician industry," says BCIT instructor Don Zaklan. "So is installing solar and more environmentally friendly energy sources on buildings, and now they get to see this happening first hand."
The apprenticeship program offers a great incentive for a student looking to become an electrician. Not only do they receive dual credits for high school and 20 weeks full-time BCIT credit, but they also receive $1000 scholarship and 20 hours practicum experience through the solar project. "This installation is perfect for them since it's a real job," adds Don.
Landon Aldridge, principal of Terratek was the on-site supervisor, who also dealt with the permitting and structural approval for the school installation. He thought the students were great to work with. "They had a lot of enthusiasm and interest in learning about the technology," he says.
The system is grid-tie, which means that any excess electricity generated can be fed back into the utility grid for credits, through the BC Net Metering program. The system also makes use of Enphase M215 Microinverters, a newer technology and often more efficient option to conventional string inverters.
Microinverters are installed behind each solar module (panel) directly on the roof, eliminating the need for wall space in the electrical room. They also work better if a roof has partial shading as one panel will not affect the performance of other modules, which can be the case with string inverters that are strung together and do not work independently. Microinverter based systems can be easily expanded to create a larger system over time.
"It turned out we had an ex-student show up for a visit during the installation. He's an electrical contractor now and was also installing a solar PV system with microinverters to a client," says Don. "So it was added confirmation that people are environmentally conscious, and want this equipment."
With a user-friendly interactive energy monitor, students and staff will be able to display the energy being produced throughout the school. "To me the important part was how will we link this to the students," he said. "Just putting the system in doesn't tell anyone anything. With the interactive energy monitoring system, they'll be able to see exactly is going on the roof."
Principal Neder Dhillon is also working on an idea for real-time displays in classroom TVs so that students can stay up-to-date on the energy savings and production side of the system, which has the potential to transfer into the curriculum through class projects.
