Building a School’s Renewable Energy
Infrastructure with Students at Midland School
M
idland School in Los Olivos, CA was
awarded a $50,000 EE Ford grant with a $60,000 matching component for Midland’s
pioneering solar project, in which the 10th graders build the
school’s solar infrastructure in annual 3-kW arrays, each of which meets
another 3% of Midland’s communal electricity needs.As of 2012, 25% of campus electricity needs
are met by student-installed arrays.
Midland’s history makes it an ideal
proving ground for students to build a solar-powered future.A rigorous college-preparatory boarding
school, Midland has always subscribed to its founder’s, Paul Squibb’s, belief
that, “money, light, heat, and water are
not things that flow naturally out of pipes, but are things for which somebody
has to spend time and thought and energy… I believe the [student] who has
learned not to take the material blessings of life for granted will live a more
vivid and interesting life and will be the better citizen.” Making visible the hidden costs of
convenience is a tangible way of teaching personal responsibility.It started with Squibb’s unwavering belief
that work is good for us – not just work of the mind, as exists in schools
everywhere, but work of the hands.It
builds character.It’s a way of life
that all Americans once lived daily, but that slipped away, as waves of
prosperity were accompanied by groundswell habits of insulation from the elements
and passive consumerism.
Midland aspires to be a replicable
model, a living demonstration that annual incremental action can accrue to 100%
over a generation.Midland has touched
upon a truth in its iterative approach to community-based renewable energy,
begun in 2003.Doing it every year spreads its cost and expands
its educational impact.With an ultimate
goal of grid neutrality, education is at the heart of Midland’s project.Midland repeats the lessons with successive
classes, tying lessons to the science curriculum, keeping abreast of the
technological curve, and leading all students towards positions of authentic
problem solving.
The EE Ford grant will fund another three
years of solar installations as well as blueEnergy wind workshops, installer of
community-supported wind turbines and water filtration systems in Nicaragua,
founded by a Midland alumnus.With 100% of
Midland’s water pumping and a growing proportion of Midland’s kitchen met with
solar, the grant’s matching component will take Midland to the next level of
self-reliance in its facilities.Midland
will upgrade its infrastructure for long-term water and food security by
replacing its principle well (drilled in 1936) and installing a backup propane
generator system that can power the kitchen and dining hall in the events of
power outages, ensuring uninterrupted refrigeration for produce from Midland’s
organic garden and grass-fed beef from its pastures.