Ken Havill Centre for Learning at Western Springs College
Western Springs College is one of the largest public schools in West Auckland, with a student roll of over 1800 students between years 9 and 13. Known historically for its co-governance with Ngā Puna O Waiōrea and its strength in the performing arts, the College has also cultivated a deep focus on environmental stewardship. A new building designed to support solar modules on the roof offered the WSC community the opportunity to “walk the talk” of sustainability, teach science curriculum, and save money on energy bills.
Supporting a community project like this perfectly aligns with SolarNetwork Foundation’s values, and we were keen to help out.
The outcome? A community-funded solar array, put to work not only for power generation but for learning and teaching, using SolarNetwork.
The challenge
- Design a solar array sized for the school’s needs and leaving options for growth in the future
- Integrate the array and building’s power meters with SolarNetwork to support data-gathering and visualisation
- Monitor power use and solar generation in real time and visualise them together
- Create a “data laboratory” for students and teachers to use as part of a curriculum on sustainability
Making it a reality
WSC took the first step toward designing their new solar array by installing two SolarNodes with SolarNetwork Foundation’s support. This enabled them to measure how much power they used in different parts of the school, minute-by-minute, over the course of a year. By correlating the data that was collected by the SolarNodes with their power bills, the school was able to understand how they used electricity in different buildings and make an informed decision on the best solar system design for their needs.
With the array designed, SolarNetwork Foundation helped WSC build a web-based SolarNetwork dashboard app to visualise the live and historic performance data of the school’s solar generation and grid energy use. Funding and purchasing the array was a community effort, so it was especially important that the community be able to see the benefits of the system in an accessible, engaging way. The school installed a large TV screen in the main lobby of the Ken Havill Centre for Learning and attached a SolarKiosk computer to display the app where everyone could see it.
Future learning
Seeing real-time evidence of power use and generation is a powerful tool for teaching and learning. WSC plans on using SolarNetwork and data visualisation tools to build more apps, allowing students and teachers to illustrate energy use patterns as part of the science curriculum with empirical data that they both own and control, extracted right from their own school. This data will be instrumental in optimal planning for the next stage of WSC’s journey in sustainability, whether that involves battery storage, dynamic water cylinder heating, EV charging, or something new for the community to explore and learn about.
