High schooler launches solar panel installation in Thousand Oaks

Apparently undistracted by normal teenage concerns, Westlake High School senior Adam Raudonis has helped set up a 6.3-kilowatt solar installation at his school.

The 18-year old, who raised $5,900 through grants, fundraisers, coin drives, Earth Day activities and recycling, will reveal the system Monday afternoon at the Thousand Oaks campus. The panels will help offset 270,000 pounds of carbon dioxide over their 25-year lifespan while saving the school $40,000. 

Advanced Solar Electric of Thousand Oaks installed the system for free on the roof of the school’s maintenance building, while SolarWorld donated several of the 28 mono-silicon panels, each 225 watts.

The teenager founded a group called Students for Solar Schools which has helped launch dozens of similar projects at other schools. He also attended the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December and helped set up the panels as part of the California Climate Champions program sponsored by educational nonprofit organization British Council and the California Air Resources Board.

Raudonis is set to attend Stanford University next year, studying Earth systems or economics.

--Tiffany Hsu

Photo: The British Council

Comments

[Deric Wisleder]

Great work Adam!

How about a 350 Global Work Party event for Thousand Oaks:

http://www.350.org/en/second-big-350-bang

[Solarpanelsforsale]

What is the absolute maximum amount of energy that solar panels can get?

[Green Certification]

This is a very informative article. I am glad to have discovered your blog. I will definitely promote this blog among my circle of friends.

[Josh Burns]

Looks like I'll be using Advanced Solar Electric for my installation. What a generous donation!!

[Josh Burns]

edit:

mono-crystalline not mono-silicon.

25 year warranty period not lifespan. Solar modules typically last upwards of 50 years.

Props to the kid!

[Bud]

Hooray for the Conejo Valley!

[save the deserts]

Good for him!

Interesting that an 18-year old boy recognizes the ENORMOUS POTENTIAL OF ROOFTOP SOLAR to prevent further climate change and clean particulate pollution while saving money, but Sierra Club, NRDC, Wilderness Society and Nature Conservancy are all pushing Chevron and BP's Big Solar industrialization of millions of acres of wilderness to send solar power right to where it could be generated more cheaply, quickly and cleanly. hmmmm. sellouts much?

Keep up the great work, Adam! And when you get a chance to discuss how this might expand much farther, please ask our cities and counties to implement the AB811 LOAN funding we all need to get solar on our own roofs (as well as efficiency upgrades), and FEED IN TARIFFS so we can be paid for producing more power than we use.

Rooftop solar is superior in every way to desert solar. That is a fact.