MI Districts Join Renewable Energy Purchase Initiative

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 04/29/09
##AUTHORSPLIT##<--->

Clean Green Energy (CGE) announced that eight more high school districts in Michigan's Upper Peninsula have signed long-term power purchase agreements for integrated renewable energy systems at their schools as part of the Project EverGREEN Schools program. That makes a total of 16 schools in the region participating in the goal to introduce renewable energy into schools. The latest additions are Iron Mountain Public Schools, Brimley Area Schools, DeTour Area Schools, Pickford Public Schools, Rudyard Area Schools, Mid-Peninsula School, Munising Public Schools, and North Central Area Schools.

CGE is a group of companies that collaborate to design and develop renewable energy projects that may involve wind, solar, storage, efficiency, demand-side management, and other technologies. CGE's typical practice is to own, install, maintain, and operate the system at the customer's facility and sell all electricity to the school's facility at or slightly below existing retail rates. Schools incur no capital costs.

"The Project EverGREEN Schools program provides a hands-on learning experience teaching energy literacy to our students and community," said Iron Mountain Public Schools Superintendent Dennis Chartier. "Our graduates will be better prepared to face the challenges of diminished resources and capable of finding solutions through renewable energy generation/distribution and efficiency options. CGE makes this all possible by reducing our costs and providing student scholarships."

Project EverGREEN Schools was a program created by CGE and transferred last fall to Partners GREEN (Group for a Renewable Energy Efficient Nation), a nonprofit organization that provides formation and resources on renewable energy, energy efficiency, environment, and climate literacy in the school sector.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • hand holding globe and environmental icons in front of a green background

    CoSN, SETDA, UDT Release Guidelines for Environmentally Responsible Technology Purchasing

    CoSN and SETDA, in partnership with IT and telecommunications solution provider UDT, recently released a set of Sustainability Procurement Guidelines designed to help K-12 school and district leaders, procurement officers, and technology directors make purchasing decisions that are both environmentally responsible and operationally effective.

  • digital dashboard featuring a shield icon, graphs, a world map, and network nodes

    IBM Launches Agentic AI Governance and Security Platform

    IBM has introduced a new software stack for enterprise IT teams tasked with managing the complex governance and security challenges posed by autonomous AI systems.

  • red brick school building with a large yellow "AI" sign above its main entrance

    New National Academy for AI Instruction to Provide Free AI Training for Educators

    In an effort to "transform how artificial intelligence is taught and integrated into classrooms across the United States," the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), in partnership with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, and the United Federation of Teachers, is launching the National Academy for AI Instruction, a $23 million initiative that will provide access to free AI training and curriculum for all AFT members, beginning with K-12 educators.

  • tutor and student working together at a laptop

    You've Paid for Tutoring. Here's How to Make Sure It Works.

    As districts and states nationwide invest in tutoring, it remains one of the best tools in our educational toolkit, yielding positive impacts on student learning at scale. But to maximize return on investment, both financially and academically, we must focus on improving implementation.