A ribbon cutting under the sun: Students bring solar power to MIHS | Environment

Join community members on Apr. 9 for Solar4MIHS: A Ribbon Cutting Under the Sun at 1:30 p.m. in Mercer Island High School Commons, 9100 S.E. 2nd St.

The community is invited to the unveiling of the high school's new solar panel system. This community thank you event will feature student Harry Bolson’s senior culminating project of sustainability and energy efficiency awareness. Funded by the Mercer Island community, the new solar voltaic display will offset the electricity consumed by the marketing department.

Solar4MIHS started as an idea from a high school junior. Since summer 2008, Harry Bolson has been particularly interested in alternative energy and sustainable living. He founded FuelCrazyAmerica.org, a forum on alternative energy resources, and worked on it daily for over a year. In this same time he researched renewable energy sources and traditional environmentalism. The constant research led to him finding a page on the Bonneville Environmental Foundation’s site, called the Solar 4R Schools Program, providing groundwork for the MIHS project. 

On Aug. 5, 2009, Bolson met with Superintendent Gary Plano for the first time to discuss the project, a solar panel demonstration on the roof of the commons. This meeting and approval for the project from the head of the district led to the installation of seven photovoltaic panels planned for the week after Spring Break.

The mission of the project transformed over the summer into the installation of a state of the art solar panel system to completely power the Mercer Island High School Student Store and marketing department as a demonstration project for advancing sustainability practices in the school district and community. As the year progressed and Harry pushed deep into grant writing and fundraising, the results turned positive.

“I was frustrated for a good chunk of the year and learned more about the process of a year long project. Persevering through many monetary setbacks was always difficult, but in the end has led to something fulfilling – $8,675 raised for the first part of Solar4MIHS! This sum will purchase a 1.61kW system, offsetting about 2000kW hours of electricity a year.” He goes on to say “It took a lot to get here, but as Nelson Mandela once said, “you can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself”.”

The solar panels have a life expectancy and warranty of 25 years, which provides the marketing department with energy and a powerful visual for sustainable learning for the next three decades. A website display monitoring the energy output of the solar panels, and a storefront display will be available to watch the energy output of the photovoltaic system. The physical and online monitors are meant for students, teachers, and parents to watch, as Mercer Island High becomes a King County Green School. As the district shifts towards partnering with the City of Mercer Island to reduce the community carbon footprint, the students, hopefully inspired by this initial demonstration project, will be able to add more panels and seek additional energy conservation measures and energy generation solutions. Future projects may include energy auditing and purchasing a solar panel or wind turbine system to offset the power used by the radio station, the main gym, or the library.