Did you know that enough solar energy reaches the Earth each hour that, if we could harness it all, we could power the world for a year?Have you ever wondered how much of that solar radiation you could capture in your own town for electricity?

Well, the students at Concord Carlisle High School in Concord, Massachusetts wondered just that.

While brainstorming ways to make their town greener, students in the Environmental Club asked how many homes in their town were suitable for rooftop solar panels. No one knew the answer, so they decided to find out.

Perhaps, they thought, if they told people their houses were good for solar panels and explained the cost, rebates, government incentives, and the payback time, as well as the benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation, people would decide to go solar. Simple, right? You can decide that for yourself. Here’s how it happened:

Step 1: Investigate: They started using Google Maps to look at houses in town, going street by street, looking for south facing roofs and low tree coverage. They were going street by street by street by street….Uh oh – “Did someone already do this street?”

Challenge #1: It’s hard to keep data straight when you’re staring at a map and trying to look at every street. They needed to try something new. The Solution? The students contacted their town counselor’s office and asked the secretary if it’d be possible to get a list of all the addresses in town.

Success! With the town list in hand they could systematically go through the city, checking Google Maps. But wait, notice anything about this map? There are LOTS of trees in the way!

 The students discovered that Google Maps pictures were taken in the summer. While this was good for seeing tree coverage, it made it hard to figure out which way the roofs were facing (Challenge #2). Fortunately, the students found that the town of Concord has a GIS map of the city and THAT map was made in the winter – cha-ching! Solution #2!

 With a town list and two mapping tools on hand, the students started screening every street. House after house after house after house….124 pages with 6,000 homes! How would they ever get through them all? That must be Challenge #3. And the solution? They needed more people! The Environmental Club merged with the Environmental Field Studies Group, another club, and they combined efforts. Then, they had their annual ACE assembly for the freshmen and 20 newly inspired students joined the initiative.

This new team got to work. The faculty sponsor, Peter Nichol, organized laptop carts so they could all work at once. Students outside of the club heard about the project and the crew grew. Students with sports practice, jobs, or other clubs after school started taking sheets of houses home to investigate on their own time.

Within a year, the students had looked at every home in town, and found that 1,700 of them were suitable for solar.  But wait, didn’t I say that they wanted to increase the adoption of solar in their town, not just do the research? YES! In fact, while the students were working, a group in town got together and started organizing the Concord Solar Challenge.

There was a movement starting across Massachusetts to install residential solar panels and the town wanted in on the efforts. They created their own town-wide incentive program and negotiated a deal with a solar installer to get cheap rates for their residents – the more people who signed up for solar, the cheaper it would be for everyone.

The town group started to think about how to do outreach to get people excited about the initiative. If only they had a list of all the homes in town that were suitable for solar….Wa bam! The match was made (by the faculty sponsor, Peter Nichol). The students wrapped up their research and handed it to the Concord Solar Challenge organizers. The Challenge kicked off in April.

The goal of the Challenge? To get at least 100 homes in Concord to go solar.

How’s it going so far?

In the first week, more than 80 people signed up to have their homes assessed for solar panels. Now, with the students helping with outreach in town, sending information out through the PTA newsletter, tabling at the supermarket, hanging door fliers, and making announcements at school, faculty sponsor, Peter Nichol, thinks the town could get 200 houses to go solar.  Now that would be a HUGE success.

Remember how I said this was a movement? Nearby towns in Massachusetts are starting their own solar initiatives, by themselves or with help from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC). Students are getting involved to make these programs a success. (If you live in MA and want to know if your town is a part of the MassCEC’s Solarize Massachusetts residential solar incentive program, click here.)

In Concord, it all started with a simple question: How can we green our town?

Students all over the country are asking the same question and coming up with inspiring solutions. We at ACE have confidence that youth are going to break through the challenge of climate change. Keep up the fantastic work!