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Taylor High School Students Show They're Bright As The Sun

Updated: Thursday, June 14 2012, 03:22 PM CDT
A green van loaded with the latest solar power technology has been built by a club at Taylor High School called B.L.A.D.E. for Beginners Learning Alternative Designs for Energy. 

The president of the club, Sean Bullock says at first this after school learning program was just a lot of book work. 

“We would go through a chapter in class then at home.  They we would take a test the next time," he syas.

 But B.L.A.D.E. member Jacob Bishop says that all changed with they heard about a solar energy student competition.

They went right to work using a donated minivan as their starting point.  The outfitted the van to collect and store solar power.  And along the way the learned all about how solar cells convert sunlight into electrical energy and how that energy can be stored for later in a bank of batteries.

Their hard work won them first prize at the student competition during the recent Austin Solar Day.  And the van also lets them play video games wherever they want.

Congratulations to B.L.A.D.E and thanks to their mentors from ERCOT—The Electric Reliability Council of Texas—for their help.

Links:
ERCOT:   http://www.ercot.com
IEEE Austin Solar Day:   http://www.ieee-pvsc.org/PVSC38/pages/communities-solar_day.php
Taylor High School:  http://taylorhs.taylorisd.schoolfusion.us/?sessionid=c71f66d62b0478c2c6f3def1c0ac4f9d&tTaylor High School Students Show They're Bright As The Sun