PGE awards student $9,000 for renewable energy project
31 Aug 2009
by: PGE
A renewable power system at David Douglas High School has been in disrepair for several years. But thanks to Oregon Institute of Technology student April Placencia and a $9,000 grant from PGE, the system will soon be generating green power again.
As part of the project, a PGE crew from Gresham was on hand Aug. 31 to reposition a wind turbine at the high school.
Placencia, who is a junior majoring in Renewable Energy Engineering, received the PGE grant to design and implement a monitoring system for a combined solar and wind power installation for the high school. The company is interested in tracking the performance of the combined installation.
“Congratulations to April Placencia for earning this important renewable energy research grant,” says Wayne Lei, PGE’s director of research and development. “This small-scale system could provide important data on how solar and wind can complement each other in offsetting their generation intermittency. The more we learn about how solar and wind can work together the better we’ll be able to integrate them onto the grid.”
As for Placencia, she says she’s grateful for PGE’s support.
“I am looking forward to using the skills I've learned at OIT to renovate this energy system, but mostly to help young people realize that their classes in science and math can help them make a difference for the planet,” she says.
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