BEF - Solar 4R Schools

Summary

Bonneville Environmental Foundation's (BEF) Solar 4R Schools program began in 2002. This competitive grant program seeks to install small-scale photovoltaic systems at K-12 schools interested in increasing the visibility of renewable energy. Successful projects will include outreach and educational components to encourage community adoption and use of photovoltaics.

The school agrees to: own and maintain the solar system, provide access to a network in order to transfer solar data and offer and implement an educational and/or public outreach strategy. Solar 4R Schools donates the photovoltaic system and monitoring equipment, performs all installations with help from school staff, and provides a renewable energy curriculum framework to the school. Once the systems are running, the students are able to access photovoltaic monitoring data on school computers as they learn about renewable energy. The data can also be displayed over the school or district website so that the general public can see it. Solar 4R Schools has developed curriculum modules that incorporate solar and photovoltaic technology concepts to assist teachers with implementing solar energy education in the classroom.

Solar 4R Schools will typically fund 50-100% of costs for approved demonstration systems sized less than 10 kilowatts and will occasionally consider partially funding other larger photovoltaic projects. Solar 4R Schools usually requires a funding partner or requires matching funds from the project applicant. Grants are awarded on a quarterly basis. Solar 4R Schools grants are available to any school in the United States. See the Solar 4R Schools website for more details on funding and the application process.