The new Clarke Middle School going up on Baxter Street next door to the Athens-Clarke County Regional Library will have a gym with a ceiling high enough to host volleyball games, a state-of-the art library, wide halls and wonderful classrooms. But what it won’t have is solar panels on the roof.
In response to a petition with 800 signatures from students, parents and other community members asking for solar power to be part of the $55 million school, the school district has formed a sustainability committee, whose members include residents, CCSD personnel, and experts from UGA and from the Athens-Clarke County government. According to an email provided by CCSD spokeswoman Cyndee Perdue Moore, the committee will review energy conservation measures “that may be incorporated by the school district. While the current design of Clarke Middle does not include any provisions for solar energy, the District is committed to review ECM’s and sustainability measures for all our facilities.”
Director of SPLOST John Gilbreath, who oversees school construction, told student publication The Red & Black last fall that installing solar panels doesn’t make economic sense for CCSD while the technology for solar is still developing. After other districts have tested the technology, in the future CCSD could consider it. Solar panels might be appropriate for Clarke Middle’s new agricultural area, he said.
While the CCSD committee deliberates, the ACC government is marching ahead with plans for making county properties completely reliant on renewable energy by 2035. The Cedar Creek water reclamation plant has a solar array that produces 1 million kilowatt hours annually. A new mental health facility on Mitchell Bridge Road will have both a solar array and battery storage capacity. And next door to Clarke Middle School, the public library will be getting four solar trackers to power the building. A new building planned for Memorial Park and the county-owned Costa Building downtown, soon to undergo renovation, will also have solar panels.
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