Solar Power Savings and Teacher Pay by Trinity Mathis
Picture Source: https://energynews.us/2020/10/16/southeast/this-arkansas-school-turned-solar-savings-into-better-teacher-pay/
A local energy company in Arkansas found that the Batesville School District had exceeded approximately $600,000 in its utility spending. This caused the district to struggle to maintain school funding and pay teachers adequately. However the energy company found that if Batesville incorporated solar energy into their schools, over the span of 20 years they could save at least $2.4 million. Superintendent Micheal Hester wanted to use the savings to go back towards the teachers salaries. Over the past three years, the project has helped the district have $1.8 million excess in funding. Hester estimates that from the surplus, each teachers’ salaries will increase by $2,000-$3,000. Hester noted that the initiative received astounding community support, despite being near a local coal power plant.
Does Parkway use solar panels? At what schools? Do you think Parkway should incorporate solar energy into more of our buildings (why/why not)?
What are some other positive outcomes from using solar energy?
What are some roadblocks or setbacks for school districts to incorporate using solar energy?
Parkway North High School has solar panels, they sell the extra energy they get in the summer. I think Parkway should incorporate solar energy in more of the building because its better for the environment and also they can sell the extra energy they get and use that money to go back in the school and be used for fixing the building if they need it and also paying for electronics etc.….
ReplyDelete-Angeline Upchurch
DeleteFrom what I briefly know I think most Parkway buildings have very few solar panels. I do think more should be in place for renewable energy. Some outcomes is that we could start to move away from harmful power sources and also become a leader of renewable energy. Some setbacks could be funding or disturbance of the school area.
ReplyDelete- Tyler A.
Positive outcomes include saving money, however, there is a significant cost that comes with installing such a large amount of solar panels. The profit will be made in the future far after the initial investment. Parkway has some solar energy, it would be beneficial for them to look into if they could invest in it.
ReplyDelete- Carissa Bersche
The main setback is funding. Although solar panels are an investment and a have really good positive outcomes, it's getting the initial funding that smaller school districts might struggle with. Also, depending on how educated people are on the climate crisis, there might be setbacks in getting community support. Surprisingly in this school district, there was community support despite being near a coal power plant which is nice.
ReplyDeleteTrinity Mathis
I know Parkway North uses solar panels and they make money from the extra energy they get. Solar panels are pretty expensive, and PNH didn't have extra money to pay for solar panels(and using tax payer money would make people/parents vote against installing solar panels), so the students that wanted to install the solar panels got multiple grants to pay for it.
ReplyDeletei do know parkway uses solar panels at at least south high and at least a couple other locations. the benefits to this is that it is renewable power. the setbacks are that its probably much slower than just getting power from a powerplant however. - Nathan Clark
ReplyDeleteI believe some Parkway schools do use solar energy and I think that more should invest in this technology. Since Parkway is such a large district, it can cut down on its carbon footprint by switching to solar energy, which is more cost effective in the long run. -Shirin Saha
ReplyDelete