Camden Hills Regional High School, Rockport, ME, has been awarded a 2012 Presidential Environmental Youth Award (PEYA) for installing a wind turbine on the school’s campus. In addition, Camden Hills’ teacher, Margo Murphy won the 2013 Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators for her leadership and work on this project. The PEYA program is designed to promote awareness of the nation's natural resources and encourage positive community involvement.
The school serves students from the Towns of Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville, and Rockport.
Since 2004, when a group of students, called the Windplanners, initiated an effort to understand the energy usage of their school, Camden Hills Regional High School students have made efficiency upgrades, researched renewable options, fundraised, partnered with school, town, and state officials and eventually installed a wind turbine on the Rockport campus.
According to the school, the turbine is the first magnetic drive wind turbine of its size in Maine. It was student purchased and is a school owned and operated machine, perhaps the first in the nation at this scale. The turbine is expected to produce 100,000 kWh for the first year, which is currently about ten percent of the school’s electricity usage. Over the next few years, through further efficiency upgrades and conservation measures, the school anticipates producing 20 percent of their electricity from wind.
Background information:
Camden Hills Regional High School
Five Town Community School District (Maine School Administrative District 28)
EPA: Presidential Environmental Youth Awards
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