Team Members & Role: 

Grainne Flanagan: Team Lead

Jacob Carpenter: Fabrication Lead

Cabell DeLong: Analysis Lead

Jake Gottwald: Evaluation Lead

Jeff Yelle: Design Lead

Abstract: 

Renewable energy is a rapidly growing industry that plays an important role in helping to mitigate the climate crisis. The role of high school students is pivotal in the evolving industry of renewable energy. Students that have early exposure to this technology may demonstrate greater interest in the shift away from fossil fuels and towards renewable alternatives. This project designed and implemented an easily replicable hybrid renewable energy demonstration system at Amherst-Pelham Regional High School to help students learn about and interact with solar and wind energy. The school historically provided students with a hands-on module for conducting experiments; however, opportunities for improvement were identified. This project’s design, which consisted of a metal platform with a solar panel, wind turbine, and battery on top, was larger in scale than the equipment the students had previously been using, but it did not sacrifice interactivity. The students are able to interact with the system in numerous ways, two of which include altering the blade length of the wind turbine and the angle of the solar panel. An LED strip and a water pump system act as visual aids, promoting student engagement as they see how altering different variables impacts the power output of the system. An electronic monitoring component allows students to quantify the performance of the system. This system deepens interest and motivation in this field, while propelling ongoing advancements in renewable energy.