Mother Nature has battered the county in recent weeks, and Worthington Elementary School has suffered as much as any school. But students and staff at the Ellicott City school will soon be reaping her benefits as well.
Solar panels will be installed over a period of six to eight weeks on three acres of land on the old New Cut Landfill, the 83-acre facility near the school that stopped operating more than 30 years ago. Construction began last week, and once up and running, the solar panels are expected to generate 90 percent of the school’s electricity.
“It’s very exciting, and very green,” said Worthington Principal Katherine Orlando. “We’re looking forward to the outcome, and we’re happy to be a collaborative part of it.”
The solar panels are made possible by a $462,000 grant from the Maryland Energy Administration. The project, Orlando said, is a collaborative effort between the Howard County Public School System, the Department of Public Works and the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority.
While three county buildings use solar energy (the library’s East Columbia branch, the new Robinson Nature Center and the George Howard government building), Worthington is the first school in the county to benefit from solar panels.
The solar array will be ready for testing in November, and completed by December. With construction close enough to the school to view the progress, Orlando said, both staff and students are learning about the process together, using the opportunity to focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
“We have a lot of students and staff and teachers here who are very serious about being environmentally responsible,” Orlando said. “We have a lot of good people doing a lot of good things.”
The panels also will move Worthington a step closer to its continued goal of being a green-certified school, Orlando added.
The positive effect the solar panels will have on the school is a reverse of the effects caused by the landfill a few weeks ago. On Sept. 2, sensors at the school detected low levels of methane gas being emitted from a monitoring well in the parking lot, prompting an evacuation of students and staff and an early dismissal at 12:45 p.m.
Patti Caplan, school system spokeswoman, said the monitoring equipment was put in place because the school is situated so closely to New Cut Landfill. Baltimore Gas and Electric concluded the levels detected were from residual amounts of methane under the soil, and not a leak as first thought.
BGE detected a fixed a gas leak at the site July 28, Caplan said, but an earthquake Aug. 23, one week before school started, could have displaced and released the trapped gas.
That incident was one of several weather-related hindrances to the school. The first day of classes county-wide was pushed back to Tuesday, Aug. 30 because of power outages caused by Hurricane Irene. Classes continued as usual at Worthington — except for the early dismissal Sept. 2 — until Tropical Storm Lee had his say. Torrential downpours doused the county Wednesday, Sept. 7, causing flooding in several areas and canceling after-school activities. The storms also knocked out power at Worthington, canceling school Thursday, Sept. 8.
“It seems like such a long time ago now,” Orlando said of the weather-related closures. “Time has a way of going really quickly, and we’re already looking forward to upcoming events. I think we did really well (with the weather).”