School's solar panels to help teach kids

In a corner of East Islip High School's courtyard, two rows of newly mounted solar panels stand about as tall as knee-high socks.

The school expects to see about $600 in savings from the 16-panel, 3,500-kilowatt system in its first year, but teachers and officials say the system has much more educational value.

"It's great to have a system like this that we can use to educate students without having to go on a bus for a field trip," school Principal William Brennen said at an unveiling ceremony Wednesday that included students and local businesspeople, politicians and educators.

Typically, high schools have installed panels on the school's roof, making East Islip's system unique,officials say.

The system's total estimated cost of $20,000 was covered by donations from local businesses, said Israel Malinowitzer, the district guidance director who coordinates the school's career academy program for seniors.

Malinowitzer hopes the installation spurs more partnerships, such as internship programs, between Long Island green businesses and the school.

"It's just really important that students get hands-on work," said Megan Morici, 20, who graduated from East Islip High two years ago. "They'll be able to see the how and why of solar energy, and it'll mean more to them."

Students will be able to view the energy generated by the panels on a monitoring website set up by Direct Grid Technologies of Edgewood.

Solar panels work by absorbing sunlight and converting the direct current energy into power used by electrical grids.

The school's photovoltaic panels are tilted at the precise angle to absorb enough energy to heat a typical office in the high school, said Louis Squeo, spokesman for Direct Grid.

Though experts say Long Island's ample amount of sunlight -- averaging 200 days a year -- makes the area a huge potential collector of solar energy, collection can be hindered by cloud cover, too much heat or the occasional goose dropping, which each can drain a system's energy up to 30 percent.

The latter, at least, is a problem East Islip's panel design helps solve.

The panels use eight micro-inverters that convert the energy of two panels each. So, if a bird lands on a single panel, only the energy output of two panels will decrease.

Still, other challenges face solar technology, issues future students will solve, said Ken White, who oversees the educational program for Brookhaven National Laboratory. "The government's pushed basic sciences, but it hasn't made the connection to applied sciences," White said. Projects like Islip's, he said, will help make that connection.