WCAX: Ferrisburgh students win solar panels for school

Reposted from WCAX.

Savvy students-turned-salespeople at Ferrisburgh Central School have earned the school a new array of solar panels.

The school participated in a program sponsored by Green Mountain Power that challenged local schools to sell energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs within their community. The school that sold the most light bulbs per student would win a $14,500 solar installation.

Ferrisburgh Central sold nearly 600 light bulbs. Their top seller was a fifth-grader who sold 118. The school principal says adding solar is just one step along the school’s path of becoming carbon neutral.

“We have our own garden, we have a wind turbine that was installed a few years ago, environmentally we have some very conscientious students and adults who work here in the building, so it just seemed like the logical next step for us,” Principal Joann Taft-Blakley said.

“I have a lot of supportive neighbors and family and friends of my school, so I just talked them into it by saying CFLs save 400 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions each year and telling them what we would win if we win the contest,” said Angus Schwaneflugel, who was the top seller.

The K-6 school beat out much larger student bodies like South Burlington High School and Montpelier High.