A California-based company, Green Apple Classrooms, has come up with an innovative model of classrooms which are energy neutral and portable. These classrooms are able to generate electricity for themselves and hence are self sufficient. In fact, on an average, the classroom will be able to produce more electricity than required for self consumption. The classrooms are relocatable hence the same classroom can be used for various purposes at different points of time. This will also bring down infrastructure related costs of school.
The classrooms will be able to produce electricity for themselves with the help of PV films attached on its roof. These silicon photovoltaic sheets are aphormous in shape and are kept in bundles on the rooftop of the classrooms. The benefits of using energy through this photovoltaic method can be quite beneficial at the macro level. For instance, in California alone, even if one quarter of existing ‘brick and mortar’ classrooms are replaced by grid neutral portable classrooms, the state will be able to save $23.3 million. This translates into avoiding 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions on annual basis.
In the process of making portable classrooms empowered with solar energy, the scientists and designers of Green Apple overcame a major design based hurdle also. The solar panels located in Northern hemisphere are required to face Southern hemisphere for optimum solar output. Now this is not always possible when the classrooms are portable since the school staff will always be more concerned about their own requirements rather than the position of solar panels. It would have hampered the efficiency of the staff also. In order to avoid this entire nuisance, the team has designed curved roofs that optimize average solar output irrespective of directions.
The other factor which scientists worked upon was the material used for making solar panels. Instead of using regular crystalline panels, Green Apple has used thin film panels made of silicon which is better in absorbing light even in dispersed light settings enabling the classrooms to generate more than sufficient electricity irrespective of their orientation. Besides, if the school authorities want to use regular solar panels they can use them, provided the classroom will stay at one place forever. Three variants of these classrooms, termed as Models A, B and C have been approved by California Division of State Architect. Now it is possible to sell these classrooms to any public schools in California.
Via: PRWeb
