Solar panels on Quadra Elementary School

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - It has been a month since the Quadra ICAN Energy Efficiency Team achieved its goal of having 14 solar panels installed on the roof of Quadra Elementary School.

According to Mike Gall, one of the participants in this project, they will only supply about 5% of the school’s needs - but that is not their purpose.

This solar array is meant to be an educational tool. Students and the general public, will soon be able to go online and monitor the performance of the solar panels that a typical house on Quadra or Cortes Island would need.

“The systems up and running. The only thing we're having to overcome right now is protocols for the school,”explained Gall. “That should be done shortly and we'll be able to release the address and link for people to be able to come in and have a look and see how well the solar panels are operating.”

While the stats are not yet available, Gall said that the solar panels should probably be performing better than originally expected at this time of the year. They had to set them up at a slightly higher tilt, which should give them an advantage when the sun is lower on the horizon. While they might receive slightly less solar energy during the summer months, that is the time of the year when sunshine is most plentiful.

“This is the first successful larger scale project that Quadra ICAN has done,” said Gall. “So I'm hoping it will be used as a catalyst to motivate people.”

Quadra ICAN partner with the Quadra Island Foundation and School District 72 to make this project possible.

Terratek Energy installed the panels.

and maintaining them will be a grade 5 and 6 science project.

Quadra ICAN partnered with the Quadra Island Foundation and School District 72 to make this project possible.