Pedal-power school takes shine to solar power array.

Byline: SUSAN PALMER The Register-Guard

Jesse Clift slung a crescent wrench through the hip loop of his canvas work pants, grabbed a socket wrench and began bolting a photovoltaic module to a steel mount on the roof at the Center for Appropriate Transport.

Clift, 16, four classmates and center director Jan VanderTuin bustled around the thin, blue-tinged modules as sun burned off Monday's early morning fog.

Thirteen-year-old Daniel Brocket, propping up one module with his head while Clift and others attached it, had a question.

"Will we be giving energy back to the community?" he asked.

Absolutely, VanderTuin said.

Once the system starts converting sunlight to electricity, whatever the center doesn't use will flow back to the Eugene Water & Electric Board, running the meter backward and reducing the center's overall bill.

"Awesome," Brocket said. "We get money instead of losing it."

The photovoltaic array adds a new arena of education to the alternative school, which specializes in all things wheeled and human-powered.

The school attracts a mix of at-risk and home-schooled students as well as those who want hands-on experience.

In center classes, they learn how to maintain and repair bicycles, using equipment that ranges from small wrenches to large sand blasters.

Computer-aided design and manufacturing software lets them create new bike styles. Lathes, milling machines and welders allow them to build and assemble their own frames.

An industrial sewing class teaches them how to make a range of products from recumbent bike seats to folding bike bags and rain gear.

And they can get involved in the center's production of Oregon Cycling, a regional magazine published 10 times a year and distributed throughout the state.

These aren't simulations, but the stuff of everyday life, VanderTuin said.

"This is our real world and we share it with our students," he said.

The 16 modules that make up the photovoltaic array will be capable of producing 2.6 kilowatts under ideal sunny conditions. EWEB grants of $18,000 paid for the curriculum and the gear.

After the system is up and running, gauges will show how much power the solar panels produce and exactly how much the center's heavy equipment consumes, VanderTuin said.

As part of the new energy curriculum, students will learn how the energy flows into and out of the modest two-story complex on West First Avenue.

For comparison, students also will build a human-powered generator.

"Getting the kids to think in terms of that, how a generator that's human-powered barely turns on a few light bulbs, whereas the welder - how do you get a perspective on the huge amount of energy it draws?" VanderTuin said.

Having the source right there with a gauge on it is one way to get that perspective, he said.

"The real reason, from an education point of view, is just getting people to understand what a megawatt hour is, what a kilowatt hour is," he said.

And VanderTuin doesn't just mean students.

The school plans to offer half a dozen community workshops so others can learn, too.

"When they're done, they'll know what everything on their EWEB bill means," he said.

The installation will be finished in about a month, and workshops will be planned after that.

VanderTuin sees solar power as an inevitable part of the future.

"These systems are sort of mysterious and what we're about is making them less mysterious," he said.

CAPTION(S):

Jan VanderTuin instructs Tyler Hord as they erect photovoltaic cells at the Center for Appropriate Transport.