Solar panels provide about 10% of the power needs at R.E. Jewell Elementary School in Bend. 

At R.E. Jewell Elementary School in Bend, an enthusiastic trio of fifth graders recently huddled around a laptop to look at a webpage filled with bar graphs and line charts. But this wasn’t math class or a lesson in finance.

The students were using an online dashboard to monitor the energy produced by solar panels on the roof of their school.

Jackie Wilson, the Bend-La Pine Schools sustainability and energy specialist, was showing off the school’s solar energy production in real-time on a website called Solar Edge. Each dip and curve represented a cloud moving overhead to temporarily block the sun, she explained.

Bend-La Pine has a goal of generating energy to power the equivalent of 70 single-family homes, said Wilson. Currently, the school district has put up panels on four schools, enough to meet nearly half of its goal.

In addition to conserving energy, the panels also serve as a real-world lesson in photovoltaics and renewable energy for Bend’s youngest citizens.

“Kids get really excited about it. They want to get solar on their school roofs. They want to make immediate changes,” said Wilson. “Sometimes they feel depressed about the impacts of climate change, but by teaching them little things they can do, they feel empowered and then they go home and educate their parents.”

The 106 solar panels on top of Jewell Elementary produce 56 megawatt hours of electricity annually, generating around 11% of the school’s power needs. According to the online dashboard, the amount of carbon offset is equal to planting 523 trees. Solar panels on Miller, Lava Ridge, and Rosland elementary schools supply a similar amount of their school’s power needs.

The $90,000 solar panel system at Jewell Elementary was partially funded by the school district’s 2017 construction bond. Pacific Power’s Blue Sky program, which uses revenue from customers who opt to offset their energy use with solar, wind and other renewable power, contributed $75,000 to the project.

“We are able to use those additional funds to cover up to 100% of the capital costs to install new renewable energy systems in our service area,” said Brandon Zero, a spokesperson for Pacific Power. “Customer adoption is really driving the success of project funding.”

Solar panels are part of the widening effort by Bend-La Pine Schools to cut its reliance on fossil fuels. Last week, the school district also started operating its first fully electric school bus. Investments are also being made to remove fluorescent lightbulbs and replace them with more energy-efficient LED bulbs.

According to a 2021 sustainability plan, the school district will try to purchase power from solar farms when possible or generate its own electricity with solar panels on rooftops. Net zero buildings, which use the same or less power that the building can produce from renewable energy, will also be considered for future construction projects.

The school district has also invested in energy-efficient building design for its newest schools. Two recently built schools — Rosland and Silver Rail schools — have received LEED energy efficiency certification.

LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the rating system used by the U.S. Green Building Council to measure a building’s resource efficiency and sustainability.

Wilson says the effort to reduce emissions reflects climate action goals set by the city of Bend, including the reduction of fossil fuel use by 40% by 2030 and 70% by 2050, compared to 2016 levels.

As the students from Jewell watched the results of the panel solar production on Wilson’s laptop, they took turns in explaining how the system works and how it can benefit the environment.

“Non-renewable fuel like coal can’t be renewed,” said Kade Grissen, a fifth grader. “The panels are helping the environment while coal is emitting more CO2 into the atmosphere.”

His classmate Nolan Bieber said Jewell Elementary can be an example for other schools and its students can talk to friends and family members about the benefits of renewable energy. Another student, Peyton Johnson, said the panels have inspired her to think of ways to reduce carbon emissions.

“Instead of driving we could walk, bike, or scooter more, and use less gas,” she said.

Wilson says there will be opportunities to increase solar capacity in the future, as funding allows. The next potential solar project is expected to involve Bend Senior High, which is about to undergo a significant rebuild over the coming five years, thanks to a $250 million bond that passed in November.

She hopes that the school district can meet its solar production goal within six years, and then install more panels to exceed the goal.

This story first appeared in bendbulletin.com