NEW!
VIRGINIA WIND FOR SCHOOLS PRE-HOST SCHOOL RESEARCH PROJECT:
SCHOOL ELECTRICITY ASSESSMENT
Overview
The Center for Wind Energy (CWE) at JMU is proposing to add one year of pre-development research to the
current Wind for Schools model in Virginia. Rather than having a school administrator or champion teacher
send in an application to be a host school and then work with the CWE through the development process, we
propose that schools put together student research teams to take on a School Electricity Assessment (SEA)
project at their school prior to becoming an official Host School. This will add one year of student-driven predevelopment work to the current Wind for Schools timeline. During that year students will take on a structured
research project with the CWE serving as an advisor, mentor, and liaison to other industry mentors. At the end
of the research project, schools will have a detailed report that can be used as the basis of grant proposals for
funding to install wind or solar technology at their school and/or to present to their school board or county
planning commission for permission and permits. Following the completion of the SEA, the CWE will work with
any schools that wish to continue on and install their project as traditional Host Schools through the Virginia
Wind for Schools program.
Tasks and Timeline
The SEA is broken into four key tasks, detailed below. The CWE aims to have all school research teams working
on SEA projects in communications so that they can share ideas and motivate each other. Therefore, the CWE
will organize regular webinars to introduce a task to the research teams and also to allow teams to report out at
the end of a task on their progress. The task introduction webinars will consist of an industry expert speaking
about how to do the task and some suggested materials and equipment followed by a Q&A session. The end of
task webinars will be an around-the-room for all teams to report out on where they are at with the task and
discuss any challenges or successes and will finish with a Q&A session.
1. Electricity Usage Assessment
Research teams will determine the space that they want to be able to ultimately power with renewable
energy a single classroom, a wing of the school, the administrative suite, the concession stand, parking
lot lights, etc. Once they have determined the space they want to power, the research team will
conduct an electricity survey to better characterize their electricity usage. The will want to log how
when and how often all items that need electricity are used over the period of a week or a month
(depending on timeline). Using that data, the research teams will better understand how much
electricity they use, what items use the most, and when they use the most. This will help them in Task
2.
Beginning of October SEA Project Introductions and Task 1 Introduction Webinar
Beginning of November - End of Task Webinar
2. Conservation Plan
Research teams will develop a conservation plan for the students that occupy the space the assessed in
Task 1 and then market and execute that plan. The idea here is to use as little electricity as possible
before looking at the potential to generate electricity from renewable sources. Research teams will
want to continue to collect data on electricity usage during this time. After a week or month of
conservation, the research team will reassess the electricity usage to determine the impact of their
conservation efforts and to get the number of kWhs they will ultimately want to generate with
renewables in Task 3.
Mid-November Task 2 Introduction Webinar
Mid-December - End of Task Webinar
3. Alternative Energy Plan
Research teams will investigate the potential and logistics of generating energy for their space using
renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. This task is broken into two parts: (a) siting and
resource assessment and (b) power production estimates and budgets. For the first part of this task
research teams will investigate where at the school a wind turbine and/or solar panels could be installed
and then research the availability of wind and sun resources at that location. This information will feed
into the second part of this task. In the second part, students will use the information on the wind and
sun resource to calculate an estimated power production from a turbine or solar panels at the site they
selected. They will put together a rough budget of what it would cost to install those systems.
Mid-January Task 3a Introduction Webinar
End of March - End of Task Webinar
Beginning of April Task 3b Introduction Webinar
Beginning of June - End of Task Webinar
4. Final Report
At the end of the school year the CWE will host its annual Virginia Wind for Schools Summit (potentially
June 24th, 2016) at JMU and invite the student research teams to attend and present their research to a
panel of industry experts. The teams will receive valuable presentation experience as well as feedback
and awards from the panel. If there is support, teams may also receive some seed money to initiate
their projects at their schools.
Students will put together a detailed report that will be submitted to CWE in advance of the Summit for
the panel to review before their presentations. More details on the requirements for the report and
presentation will be given during the webinar.
Mid-June Task 4 Introduction Webinar
Students and team advisors are encouraged to participate in the entire Summit. If there were interest
we could offer an around-the-table session for teams to share next steps, challenges, successes, and
participate in a Q&A session.
Contact Information
If you have a team of students interested in participating in this years SEA or have any questions please contact
Remy Pangle at by September 28th:
panglerm@[Link]
540-568-8768 (office)
540-383-9248 (cell)
And please join us for a webinar about the program on September 18 at 3:30 pm where we will try and answer
all your questions. Details about the webinar will be sent out earlier that week.