Growing threats to the environment â from warming temperatures to melting icecaps, rising seas to more intense storms and floods â have increased calls to grow a green workforce that can figure out how to face a brave new normal.
To that end, educators and innovators in Virginia devised a 10-week high school competition that enlisted bright young minds to propose innovations in solar energy.
Solar panels generate energy from the roof of the Arlington (VA) Central Library. (Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services)
The Throwing Solar Shade contest invited students from one urban and one rural school district to look to their own communities for inspiration. Three schools participated and produced about 15 student projects. The four winning entries studied the effectiveness of different solar panel surfaces, the use of light-hued paint to reduce asphalt temperatures, the physics of solar panels and the merits of placing solar panels atop commercial poultry houses.