BRUNSWICK COUNTY — Brunswick County’s technical school announced this week it will receive a combined $25,000 to help fund a solar photovoltaic array on campus.
NC GreenPower, a renewable energy non-profit, awarded The COAST a $10,000 grant to complete the project. The non-profit is partnered with The State Employees Credit Union Foundation (SECU), which will add in $15,000.
Related: The COAST, Brunswick’s public technical school, is ready for more students
The $10,000 award is a matching grant. A newly-installed solar system at The COAST will be used as an educational tool at the growing technical school.
“The NC GreenPower Solar grant will provide students with an awesome opportunity to work with solar technology and data collection in a real and meaningful way,” Clean Energy Technology Instructor Dr. Daniel Richardson said in a Brunswick County Schools’ release on the award.
Richardson, The COAST’s Clean Energy Technology instructor, will incorporate the new equipment in his courses.
“Students will be able to analyze power production in real time and use that information to inform their own decisions about projects in the Clean Energy classes,” he said. “Being able to see the technology and work with it first hand is a powerful learning tool and I can’t wait to share it with the students.”
In May, The COAST received new signage to coincide with its rebranding. The school was previously an alternative school; now, it still functions as an alternative school for ninth-grade students and offers over a dozen technical courses.
These courses are open to all Brunswick County Schools’ high school students with the right prerequisites, who in turn receive public transportation during the school day to enroll in select courses at The COAST.
