KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Lake County Office of Education has received a $10,000 grant to install solar panels at the Taylor Observatory-Norton Planetarium in an effort to turn the facility into a science center for students across the county.
On Friday afternoon, Lake County Superintendent of Schools Wally Holbrook, community members, Lake County Office of Education staffers board members, Kelseyville Unified School District Board members, members of the Friends of the Taylor Observatory and representatives from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. gathered at the planetarium for the presentation of the big check.
Holbrook said 70 students from Terrace Middle School and Mountain Vista Middle School also were at the observatory for the event, with all of the students getting to sign the big ceremonial check.
PG&E awarded the Lake County Office of Education the $10,000 “Bright Ideas” grant, which Holbrook said will be used to add 10 solar panels to the roof of the observatory, located at 5725 Oak Hills Lane in Kelseyville.
PG&E offers the grants – ranging from $1,000 up to $10,000 – for school renewable energy and environmental programs and projects, even science-related field-trips.
Holbrook said the solar installation project includes the use of monitoring software that will be a teaching tool, allowing students to track how much energy is generated or saved.
As such, the observatory will become an energy demonstration center for all of the county’s schools, he said.
“We're trying to have the observatory become the science center of Lake County,” he said.
The observatory location allows all county students to be connected to the facility online, Holbrook said.
The observatory and planetarium recently got a new $25,000 state-of-the-art projector, with the Friends of the Taylor Observatory paying for the project’s software, Holbrook said.
He said the quality of the shows – and the audience – has increased at the planetarium and observatory.
He said he and his staff hope to be able to pursue other grants, including one to install a demonstration wind turbine at the facility.
Visit the observatory online at www.lakecoe.org/programs/taylor_observatory .
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