By Spencer Abraham
02/24/04 -- The U.S. Department of Energy is looking to expand its highly successful EnergySmart Schools project, a national effort to teach children about energy, make schools more energy efficient, and save enough money to hire thousands of new teachers.
The program, unanimously endorsed by the NSBA Board of Directors, can help school systems stretch their ever-tightening budget dollars, help strengthen our nation's energy security, and make our children wiser consumers. One school district in Tennessee is already saving $1 million a year under the program.
The EnergySmart effort can be tailored to large or small schools, as well as college and university campuses, office complexes, government facilities, low-income housing, and commercial buildings. One of our strongest sectors for the EnergySmart program is schools serving grades K-12.
Schools that invest in energy-efficiency improvements reduce their energy costs by 25 to 30 percent on average -- enough, for example, to hire 38,000 new teachers nationwide.
By explaining why our EnergySmart Schools program works so well for schools, we hope to encourage more boards of education to consider launching projects that put the Department of Energy's expertise to good use.
First, the energy-efficiency projects that we assist are created by community partnerships relying on the initiative of local champions. School board members and their facilities managers make excellent local leaders and advocates because of their roles in managing costs and buildings, often under strong pressure from taxpayers.
Second, schools are physically suited to energy-efficiency projects because of economies of scale.
A school building usually is large enough and complex enough to offer far more opportunities for saving energy than might be found in a small office or retail outlet. Economies of scale also apply to entire school districts, particularly in the purchase of power.
The Sullivan County school district in northeastern Tennessee is saving about $1 million a year across its 28 schools because of energy-efficiency improvements.
The initial capital outlay for the school district was zero. The school used a performance contract, in which guaranteed savings over a period of time (in this case, 15 years) cover the cost of the improvements. After the end of the contract term, all savings are retained by the district and can be used for other purposes.
Similar examples can be drawn from every region of the country.
Third, many districts are planning new schools to cope with growing student populations. The Department of Energy can help with its Energy Design Guidelines for Building High Performance Schools, available online at www.energysmart schools.gov.
Fourth -- and most important from an educational perspective -- schools use energy-efficiency and renewable-energy improvements as educational tools. This is the most distinctive aspect of the program's interaction with educational facilities.
Students learn about energy technologies, basic science, energy conservation, and environmental protection from our program, through the study of improvements in their schools and by helping to make those improvements happen.
In some schools, students help install solar energy panels and monitor photovoltaic power production. In other schools, students form patrols to save money through such basic steps as turning off unneeded lights or setting thermostats properly.
The educational factor helps create the wise consumers and building managers of tomorrow, and could even inspire tomorrow's energy technologists and scientists.
Students in the program often propose improvements that can save their schools substantial money, such as lighting retrofits or painting a roof white to reflect excess solar energy.
Several of our program partners -- the National Energy Foundation, National Energy Educational Development Project, and the Alliance to Save Energy -- provide materials for school curricula and train teachers on energy efficiency and renewable energy. Recently, the Department of Energy helped fund a school text, Light Up My Life, an instruction booklet in the Active Physics series.
The series, primarily offered in grades 7-9, brings physics to life for students by showing them how it applies to such everyday things as the light bulb shining overhead.
EnergySmart Schools, in sum, is exceptionally suited to help schools, which helps explain why the NSBA board has given the program such a strong endorsement. So try it on. Notice how it feels, and what money you can save. We think you'll like the fit.
Spencer Abraham is U.S. secretary of energy.