Power Up
Stone Lab buildings are powered using solar panels on the roof and on a nearby pavilion.
Solar energy is a visible presence at Stone Lab, The Ohio State University’s island campus on Lake Erie. Solar panels on the roof of the lab building and on a pavilion near Gibraltar Island’s southwestern tip create up to a quarter of the lab’s electricity needs during the spring and summer, and solar thermal tubes on the Dining Hall roof provide for all of the building’s hot water needs.
But of course, using solar energy doesn’t stop there for Stone Lab and Ohio Sea Grant staff. Instead, they’ve expanded on the basics of what the technology provides – electricity and heat – and developed Ohio Sea Grant’s Solar Technology Curriculum, which takes advantage of the presence of the solar arrays by offering a complete set of lessons on solar energy that teachers can download and use with their students.