Teens get a first-hand look at solar energy in action

By Jeremy Twitchell

Saturday, July 25, 2009 | 1:59 a.m.

A solar-powered vitamin factory in Henderson served as the backdrop Friday morning for a group of valley teenagers learning about green technology.

The teens are participating in a six-week summer course that has taken 50 at-risk students from around the valley to give them a glimpse of what their future can hold.

The Green Academy of Training and Technology was designed by Building Hope Nevada, a non-profit community development association, in conjunction with TWC Construction, Ascent Solutions and Lucchesi Galati Architects.

It is funded by a $200,000 federal stimulus grant through the U.S. Department of Labor.

Building Hope Nevada CEO Angela Quinn said the purpose of the program is twofold: to get students more involved in their education and to recruit and train a workforce for the rapidly growing green technologies industry.

“We’re getting these kids trained in an emerging economy,” Quinn said. “We believe very strongly that this is where our economy is going.”

In Henderson Friday morning, 25 students toured the facility that serves as the vitamin and supplement factory for Pro-Caps Laboratories and the headquarters for TWC Construction. The building is almost entirely powered by solar arrays on its roof and parking shades, and when TWC builit it in 2004, was the first private company in Nevada to sign a renewable energy credit agreement with Nevada Power (now NV Energy).

TWC Business Development Manager Matthew Weinman said his company was glad to serve as a model when Quinn approached them about a tour for the students.

“I’ll talk to anybody who wants to listen to the concept of sustainable development and green building,” he said.

At the facility, TWC CEO Matthew Ryba led the students on a tour of the vitamin factory while he explained the concept of solar panels and how they work.

After the tour, the students took turns riding a scissor lift in the parking lot to get an up-close view of the solar panels on the parking shade structures.

Ryba told students that there would be a solid future in the green industry for anyone willing to work for it.

“No shortcuts, guys,” he said. “Get your minds in school and try to take advantage of these new technologies. We’re trying to take back control; we’re trying to give your grandkids a nice, clean place to live.”

Students are reacting to the course with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Some, like Arbor View sophomore Diego Ruvalcaba, are coming away with a sense that working in the green industry is something they could do.

“It helps us learn what being green is, how it helps our lifestyle,” he said. “I think it’s going to help me recycle more, be more green and pick up trash when I see it, instead of just leaving it there.”

Other students said some of the things they are learning are interesting, but they still have their own plans for life and that there are other ways they would like to spend their summer.

“I text when they’re not looking,” Miley Achievement Center freshman Jonathan Ledbetter said.

With Friday’s tour, students are halfway through the six-week course. Everything the students are doing, Quinn said, is building to a project that they will design and build during the final week.

At this point, she said, the teens are planning on building solar-powered dog houses with air conditioning units that local animal shelters could use.

“The reason we’re so excited about this is that it’s proof of concept,” Quinn said. “Six weeks ago, you sat and talked about this. Six weeks later, you’re the one designing and building it.”