HomeMy WebLinkAbout10.26.09 Alternative Energy letter
P.O. Box 264 • Kotzebue, Alaska, 99752 • Phone (907) 442-3472 • Fax (907) 442-2392
Leading the Way
Mission:
To graduate students
with the skills and
confidence to be good
citizens.
Vision:
“By 2012, NWABSD
will be in the top 10%
of district in Alaska
based on graduation
rates and student
achievement.”
“Educating Our Children to Lead Successful Lives”
NWAB School Alternate Energy Solar Awareness Project
October 26, 2009
Dear Alaska Energy Authority:
The Northwest Arctic Borough School District, comprised of 12 schools in 11
villages with 1850 students fully supports this proposal for a 4Kw Solar PV array, to be
installed on the 11 NWAB High-schools in the Borough, Co-generating with the grid.
Installation would be done using the High-school students and qualified
personal from the School in collaboration with the local utility. The project explores
modular inverter technology for redundancy and also provides a platform for
understanding Solar (PV) technology for our student base, supporting an upcoming
curriculum-addendum at high-school level and a class at Chukchi College.
The incoming power can be studied trough a web-portal for easy access at
anytime by all parties interested in the project. With an ongoing program for Alternate
Energy in our curriculum, the schools could expand the array every spring to the extent
allowable by the local utility (KEA) and AVEC and also implement the technology and
teachings to the other schools in our Region.
Over time, the Schools would become more and more efficient in their use of
energy as each high school finishing class would contribute a project to offset the
energy usage in each school. The curriculum project could be different every year.
As we incorporate Alternate Energy sources in Alaska’s rural communities, it is
important to make ways available for our coming generations to become proficient in
the new implementation of the resources. After all, they will live with what we create
and have to be able to understand and work with the systems. If this doesn’t happen,
and we have to rely on outside expertise to service the new Energy systems, then the
cost of operation will be excessive and our effort of lowering Energy cost for the
Region will be hampered.
We need to take responsibility, now for what we create for the future
generations.
This project will be an important start.
If in any way I can be of additional help to you please contact me at (907)442-
3472 ext. 233. My email is neck@nwarctic.org.
Sincerely,
Norman Eck, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools