Educating Others About Solar Energy
Published April 25th, 2012
University of Florida's Beta Theta Pi fraternity recently had solar panels installed in their house.
Now one of the members who proposed the idea is trying to educate others about solar energy by hosting an expo.
"I have a huge passion for sustainability and learning more about it," said Stuart Block.
Last September block, who is a Beta Theta Pi member, proposed an idea to his housing corporation president.
"I saw our electricity bills and they were about $2500 a month and that's a lot of money. I realized that maybe if we can get solar panels up there we can offset the cost of out electricity bills a little bit," said Block.
Six months later Block's idea became reality.
"A week later we are applying for a rebate with Progress Energy which we secured and that's when we met John Lawson, who when we needed further funding, we went to him. He was able to give us a $10,000 loan that we are paying back through service hours for the next five years for the Energy Department at UF," said Block.
Power Production Management partnered up with the fraternity to install the 10KW solar energy system.
Jason Gonos from PPM was at the soalr energy and efficiency expo held on Saturday at the fraternity house.
"We had a solar expo,more of an educational event to teach people about solar energy, to highlight the installation progress. What has actually been done to this house," said Gonos.
Resdients got to ask questions and get an estimate on how much it would cost them if they decided to go green.
There was also a hands on demonstration of a state of the art solar electric and hot water training system.
Glenda Hatch drove from Suwannee county to attend the event.
She said she is planning on converting to solar energy in her home.
"I thought it was very well put together and very informative," said Hatch.
Block said he put this expo together to educate others about the topic.
"I want others to realize that if they have a goal, if they want to get solar panels in their fraternity, they can do it. with a little bit of luck, a lot of perseverance, anything can be done," said Block.
By:Yaremi Farinas
