Hilary Crowley, DRI GreenPower Coordinator hlewis@dri.edu (702) 862-5409
Karen Foster, SPPC Manager of Public Relations kfoster@sppc.com (775) 834-5683
All DRI News Releases available at: http://news.dri.edu/
May 7, 2003
DRI Research Foundation and Sierra Pacific Power Company bring
GreenPower to northern Nevada
Traner Middle School planned for first area solar site next fall
GreenPower installation at Hyde Park Middle School in Las Vegas last fall
David Gulley, manager of Las Vegas Solar Electric, installs the final panel for the school's
photovoltaic array. In the background is the
system's wind turbine. A similar system is planned for Traner Middle School in Reno this
fall.
Download a high resolution version of above image:
http://news.dri.edu/highresimg/davelvsolar4.jpg
Sometime this fall, the DRI Research Foundation and Sierra Pacific Power Company hope to
plug in a GreenPower solar electrical array
and a wind turbine generator to bring fossil fuel-free power to Robert Traner Middle School in
Reno. GreenPower is a program
underwritten by Sierra Pacific's customers who add a few dollars to their monthly electrical
bills to develop a fund for non-fossil fuel
energy generation projects and education in northern Nevada. The program is administered by
the DRI Research Foundation, the
fundraising arm of the Desert Research Institute.
The Traner project represents the Foundation’s first GreenPower installation in northern
Nevada. The first one went online at Hyde Park
Middle School in Las Vegas last September, and two more are planned for southern Nevada in the
next few months. “These projects
fulfill the GreenPower objectives of producing more electricity in southern Nevada without
using fossil fuels and, additionally, bring an
example of practical, environmentally friendly, power resources right into the classrooms,”
said James Kropid, a DRI Foundation trustee
who chairs its GreenPower Committee.
We believe these students are the generation that will see the wide-scale adoption of
renewable energy as a substantial source of
power, and we think it's important for them to become familiar with the technology as early as
possible.”
The Traner installation should be virtually a duplicate of the Hyde Park system: 12
five-foot-high by 33-inch-wide panels producing a total
of two kilowatts of power, and an accompanying wind generator, powered by a four-foot
wingspan, generating another 400 watts. The
result is about enough power to run a small, efficient home. The school should save
approximately $500 a year in energy costs.
Hilary Crowley, DRI's GreenPower coordinator, said the system will reinforce to students how
energy is transferred into or out of a
system, how energy readily changes form, and how energy is converted from one form to another.
Lessons will focus on the use of
natural resources, energy conservation, and alternative energy sources. She said the Traner
teachers will also receive renewable
curriculum information that Hyde Park teachers have developed for their classes after
attending a special seminar.
This also gives students the opportunity to collect data from the solar array,” Crowley said.
“Students will have a chance to analyze the
collected data and cross reference the results to the weather station data that we currently
have at Hyde Park. It can be tied into their
class work, and will allow them to see the practical relationship between weather and solar
energy collection.
Karen Foster, SPPC manager of public relations, said the company has included GreenPower
enrollment information with monthly power
bills. She said 100 percent of the funds added on top of customers' utility payments will be
transferred to the DRI Research Foundation,
and are therefore tax deductible. All contributors will receive a letter of acknowledgment
from DRI for tax purposes. She said the
Sierra Pacific Foundation will match customers' GreenPower donations up to $10,000 through
December 31, 2003.
To join the GreenPower Program, SPPC and DRI both offer links online. Go to: http://www.dri.edu and "click" on the GreenPower plug, or
http://www.sierrapacific.com/comenv/env/greenpower/join/
A nonprofit, statewide division of the University and Community College System of Nevada, DRI
pursues a full-time program of basic and applied environmental research on a local, national, and
international scale. Nearly 500 full- and part-time scientists, technicians, and support staff
conduct some 150 research projects at DRI annually. More than 85 percent of DRI's annual $33
million operating budget consists of research grants and contracts obtained by its scientists.
The balance is received from the state of Nevada for administrative costs.
Download a high resolution version of above image: http://news.dri.edu/highresimg/davelvsolar4.jpg
