If you look up on top of Jacksonville High School’s field house, you will see the future … of renewable energy that is. The Appalachian Regional Commission recently awarded a grant to JHS to have two solar panels installed.

“We are really excited about the solar panels,” said Jacksonville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey.

Mackey said that the grant came from the hard work of JHS science teacher, Lauren Haslam.

“They are only given to a few schools across the whole nation, and so Mrs. Haslam had to really work though the process. We supported her in every way we could.”

Mackey said that he thinks JHS was one of the two Alabama schools selected to receive the panels because of their support of incorporating them into class studies.

“Our whole purpose is just education,” said Mackey. “We want our student to learn about renewable energy and certainly learning about solar power which is one of the major emphasis coming out of Washington with the national energy policy.”

Waste Reduction and Technology Transfer Foundation (WRATT) was placed in charge of distributing and installing the panels.

“We were given a grant by the Appellation Regional Commission to put two solar panels on two schools this year,” said Danny Patterson, President of WRATT. “What we do is try to make sure everybody understands about alternative energy for the future, and that’s what this project is about.

According to Patterson, the equipment is worth about $12,000. In addition, Patterson presented Haslam with a curriculum that will help the students understand how the solar energy is collected and used.

Project Manager Gerald Wigginton, explained to those in attendance how the panels work and the added benefit of extra energy.

“As the sun shines on these modules inside the panels it will produce a current,” said Wigginton. “It is a DC current, like what you might find in batteries. In order to use this, we run this though a converter to change it to an AC current, which can be used in the building and offset some of the energy you are paying for now from Alabama Power.”

According to Wigginton, the panels are hooked up to the school’s computer system allowing teachers and students to get information about that status of the panels.

The ARC grant also provided for a speaker, WRATT’s Jim Wren, to address the students about ways to lessen the waste of energy and why that is important.

“How much money do you think the United States of America spends on energy in one minute,” said Wren. “How about $1,000,000? What they want us to do, is to go out and see if we can get that number lower, and that’s what we are going to do today. We are going to show you ways to save on your energy costs.”

Wren said that Energy Star approved appliances are 40 percent more efferent than the average appliance, saving energy and money.

Wren also introduced the students to the next generation of energy saving light bulbs, the LCD bulb, which is projected to have a 22-year life expectancy and uses 1.5 watts of power to do the work that a 40 watt bulb did.

In Alabama, heating and cooling ends up being around 49 percent of energy use. One tip Wren gave the students was to make good use of ceiling fans in both summer and winter. By reversing the direction in the winter, warm air higher in the room spreads around and can make it feel warmer.

Power vampires are appliances that, while they my look turned off, are still using energy to stay on. Power vampires include computers, cable boxes and televisions. Wren says using power strips to cut off power will stop lots of wasted energy.

Wren ended his speech encouraging the students to take what they had learned and what the solar panel curriculum will teach them and look to the future.

“I am expecting one of you to be the person who gets us independent of outside help for energy. I think there is one of you out there that can do that,” said Wren.