Chile: High Schools Turn To Solar Power

[jpak]

http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=14291&topic_id=15

(July 24, 2007) Three Chilean high schools have recently adopted solar energy as a cost-effective source of heat and energy. Additionally, the schools are utilizing solar energy as means to instill a sense of environmental consciousness in their students in a country where energy is often in short supply.

Since last October, the American British School in Santiago’s La Florida district has incorporated solar energy to heat the school’s water and pool. The Garden School, also in the same neighborhood, uses solar energy to heat the buildings which house its elementary and middle school classrooms.

Meanwhile, in April, Santiago’s German School installed solar panels to heat the school’s showers. The initiative was sponsored by the German Energy Agency, which has similar projects in German schools around the world. The school uses eight tons of hot water every day when its 200 kids take showers after gym.

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Still, the solar panels have not just reduced the schools’ carbon dioxide emissions. According to Autoflame, the company that installed the panels, the German School now saves between 50 and 60 percent on its monthly energy bill.

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