Road to 1000 MW: Rocky Hill School uses solar panels as a teaching tool

Back-to-school season is here!
This month, we are highlighting the Rocky Hill School in Warwick, which not only has a rooftop solar array generating clean power for the building, but also uses the array in the classroom as an educational tool.
The project, installed by Newport Renewables on the Alan Flynn Jr. Upper School Building, includes 120 solar panels, which produces 41,000 kWh/year.

• The solar PV array provides 20 percent of the building’s annual electricity.
• Over the next 25 years, the system will offset 725 tons of CO2, the equivalent of 24 acres of trees being planted.
• In total, the system will generate 1,950,000 kWh of electricity, which will offset power generated from fossil fuels.
• Students have access to the system monitoring website and meteorological grade weather station to enhance their learning.

In March, Governor Raimondo announced an ambitious goal to add  1,000 megawatts of clean energy and 20,000 clean energy jobs to Rhode Island by the end of 2020. Rocky Hill School is just one example of the types of projects that are contributing to this goal.