2008 Woodie Awards
College sees the light in students' campaign
Kevin Spear
Orlando Sentinel (MCT)
Issue date: 3/1/07 Section: News
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Rollins College students called for real action from school administrators to help put a chill in global warming. What they got was expensive solar equipment and a building to put it on.
Without pay or college credit, Rollins students then helped install the equipment, which will generate roughly 1.6 kilowatts for fluorescent ceiling lights in a science laboratory.
When the juice flows in the next week or so, Rollins will join colleges and universities nationwide where students are leading efforts to shine a light on energy alternatives that don’t increase air pollution and climate change.
“It’s not like we’re out protesting with bullhorns,” said Sara Shaw, 21, an environmental studies major. “This is a generation that would rather do something than just
talk about it.”
Shaw and other students started their quest nearly three years ago. They searched for grant money, but that went nowhere. So they turned to Rollins officials, who said they would try to find funding.
“We definitely had to be persistent and let them know we were serious,” she said. “Rollins has never done anything like this.”
The payoff after countless meetings and presentations, but not confrontations or demands, was nearly $40,000. Roughly half paid for the panels and the remainder bought steel framing and other mounting materials.
That’s significantly more expensive than a homeowner might pay for a housetop system. But the Rollins solar assembly is highly exposed to winds and required stronger anchoring hardware.
To Kirk Hemphill, Rollins College maintenance manager, the array was relatively cheap and is in keeping with an institution that plans to stay in one place for a long time.
“The payoff is in decades, 50, 60, 70 years or more.” Hemphill said. “It’s built to last that long, like our buildings are built to last 100 years.”
Environmental studies professor Joe Siry said solar panels don’t incur the hidden health and environmental costs of strip mining and long-distance hauling by trains that come with the nation’s top energy choice: coal.
What’s more, the panels will make an impression that classroom lectures can’t convey. Siry said future courses will use the panels as a teaching tool. They are mounted on a second-story roof of the Bush Science Center and have eight separate panels that are adjustable to squarely face the sun during changing seasons.
“Next year’s freshmen are going to come in and assume this is standard stuff here,” Siry said.
That’s rapidly become the norm at other schools, said Liz Veazey, regional coordinator for the Southern Energy Network, which encourages Southeastern schools to collaborate on alternative-energy strategies.
When she started in 2004, only about five universities had student-driven energy programs. Today, students are pursuing energy efficiency and alternatives at more than 30 schools, she said.
“I think it’s one of the biggest issues of our generation,” Veazey said about climate change blamed in large part on power-plant emissions of carbon dioxide. “If we don’t do the right thing within the next 10 years, there’s no going back.”
Fiona Harper, assistant biology professor at Rollins, said the eight solar panels on the science-building roof should only be a start.
“What better way for a college to make a difference in this community,” she said. “There’s a lot of flat roofs on campus. We get all this sun and I see no solar panels on them.”
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