Clover Middle School becomes a solar school

Clover, S.C. — York Electric Cooperative, Santee Cooper and the Clover School District have dedicated a Green Power Solar School at Clover Middle School. The school has been equipped with a solar cell array that is already producing electricity from the sun’s rays, providing students with a firsthand look at the opportunities and challenges of solar power. Students, educators and utility representatives gathered around the pole-mounted solar array to officially commemorate it.

“York Electric Cooperative is excited about expanding this great educational opportunity to the students at Clover Middle School,” said Paul Basha, CEO for York Electric Cooperative. “Students will study a special renewable energy curriculum that meets South Carolina’s science standards, and these dynamic lessons empower our youth and energize our future.”

“Programs like Green Power Solar Schools challenge tomorrow’s leaders to think critically about renewable energy sources and how they might benefit future generations,” said Marc Tye, senior vice president of customer service for Santee Cooper. “The investment made in Clover Middle School is an investment in education and an investment in the future of energy for our state.”

Santee Cooper and the state’s electric cooperatives have partnered to install Green Power Solar Schools in electric cooperative territories across South Carolina. The initiative is designed to encourage interest in the environment and demonstrate the feasibility and limitations of renewable power generation. Each Green Power Solar School receives a 2-kilowatt solar power system, which will provide a teaching and research opportunity for students. The project uses a new renewable energy curriculum designed especially for the program that meets state science standards. Each school program is supplemented by an Internet-based monitoring system that provides real-time access to information on the system’s performance as well as other solar schools in South Carolina.

“Our students will benefit greatly by having access to this engaging, curriculum-based program in which they will be able to learn firsthand the benefits of renewable energy sources,” said Marc Sosne, superintendent of Clover School District. “The solar cell further enhances the outdoor classroom and Gloria Reid Memorial Garden at Clover Middle School.”

Green Power Solar Schools represents one way that Santee Cooper and the state’s electric cooperatives promote renewable energy. It helps fulfill Santee Cooper’s commitment to reinvest Green Power funds back into renewable resources across South Carolina. Santee Cooper and the electric cooperatives began generating and distributing Green Power in 2001, and have steadily increased renewable generation in South Carolina since then, using South Carolina resources.

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