High school going green with solar panel

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By Brooke Kelley - bio | email

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - Jenkins High School is harnessing the power of the sun with a new solar panel. The new solar panel not only saves the school money, but gives students a learning tool.

Georgia Power executive Mike Joyner was instrumental in getting the panel ready for Jenkins.

"Green energy has become more relevant in the county and a lot in school systems are trying to save money," he said. "Part of what we are doing is providing solar panels in classrooms to give students hands on application, something they can learn from look at and it promotes green energy."

Nautica Carlers is one of many students enrolled in Jenkins High School's Project Program, a program only offered at Jenkins for students interested in engineering.

"It's really cool, because not a lot of schools have solar panels," said Nautica while measuring how much energy the panel was producing.

The solar panel isn't powerful enough to provide energy for the entire school, but it is connecting to the grid and does help save power. To put it in perspective, this panel provides enough energy needs for half of the average American home.

While it may not seem like a whole of lot of energy, teachers hope a little will go a long way when it comes to the importance of going green.

"Where ever the energy demand is the energy will go there," said Tom Maty, a teacher at Jenkins High School. "With technology advancement of solar cells that are making energy more efficient who knows what will happen in the next five to ten years."

Jenkins High School is one of three schools in Georgia that have a fully operational solar panel.