Recruiting help

  

The Key West High School Alternative Energy Center recieved some help in its efforts to improve the beauty of the surrounding area. Students of Key West High Schools Advanced Placement art program, led by their teacher Mrs. Shannon Perkins, came out to add their creative touch to the Center's efforts. They painted the above mural on the side of the biodiesel building as well as taking some of the rougher looking biodiesel barrels and is turning them into works of art. Although not completely finshed, their work has already done much to improve the look of the Alternative Energy Center, and we thank them for their efforts.

Still making Biodiesel

For the past few days, the students of the Key West High School Alternative Energy Center have been learning how to make biodiesel by making some of it themsevles. Each student brought a 2 liter bottle and followed the process to each make thier own batch of roughly 1 liter of biodiesel. After having made thier own, the students have to clean thier biodiesel using a spray bottle. When the water that has gone through the fuel is completely clear, then entire process is finished.

Students Learn how to Make Biodiesel

Today, instructor Josh Clearman spent most of the period teaching the students of the Center how to make biodiesel on small scale, as well as going over the safety equipment and rules. Tomorow each student will attempt to make thier own 2 liter bottle of biodiesel using the things that we have learned today.

A Daring Rescue

The Key West Alternative Energy Center had a little bit of a crisis after it was discovered that an iguana had gotten itself stuck inside one of the covers above a bay door. A rescue effort led by Sandito Santiago was mounted, and soon most of the class joined in to help. 

At first, Santiago attempted to scare the hapless creature out of the chamber by banging on the door cage, but this served only to upset the iguana.

Next a combination of gentle pulling and prodding was attempted to provoke the creature out of where it had trapped itself but this too proved unsuccessful.

After this, Santiago and his help tried a new strategy by attempting to remove the door cage,  but after it was discovered that this was impossible this effort was abandoned.

Finally an opportunity presented itself and Santiago sprung into action, getting a firm grip on the iguana's tail; After a struggle the iguana finally came free.

 The iguana, of course, was none to happy about being handled, and after a quick photoshoot was set free in the woods along the side of the Center. Hopefully he won't be back.

Marathon Visits

Today, a group of 12 students from Marathon high school drove down to Key West to get a better glimpse of the Alternative Energy Center, hoping to emulate and create a similar program on their campus.

Together, the students toured the classroom and surronding area to view projects that are currently in progress, the pack ended the tour with a look at the new Stephen Colbert Wind Turbine.  

Wallace and Holroyd, unsung heroes of the Alternative Energy Center

Seniors Julie Holroyd and Andree Wallace have been labeled the unsung heroes of the program after the two decided to take on the difficult task of organizing and keeping track of all the finances and forms. They are important contributors that work mostly behind the scenes. We would like to take a moment to recognize them for their hard work, much of which goes unnoticed.

Step 2 of the planter box project has been completed, and several different kinds have plants have been planted in planter boxes so that they can begin growing. As stated before, these plants will deflect sunlight away from the front wall of the biodiesel building, helping to keep the building cooler, which reduce cooling costs of the building. The cistern group is now working on installing the cistern so that it can begin collecting rainwater to water these plants.

This is Wild Coffee plant (Psychotria grandiflora) is native to the Hawaiian of Kauai and is one of the largest species of coffee plants.

 

This plant is a twinberry tree called the Simpson's Stopper (Myrcianthes fragrans), it typically grows to about 10 or 20 feet, but because of our location, it is expected to grow taller.

This plant is of the lantana genus, and while it will only grow to about 2 feet tall, its bright flowers are known to attract butterflies.

This is a firebush (hamelia patens) also of the coffee family. It will grow to the size of a small tree and its flowers are extremely attractive to humming birds, which why it is sometimes nicknamed the hummingbird bush.

The last type of plant that has been put in the planter boxes are silver buttonwood trees (Conocarpus erectus). They are expected to be the largest of the Centers plants, as silver buttonwoods can grow over 60 feet tall.

A lesson in education

While browsing the internet the other day, I came across this picture that reminded me of what the Key West High School Alternative Energy Center stands for. While it is true that the Center has made many physical accompishments such as the 1000 gallons of biodiesel already created and the installment of the wind turbine, our main goal is to give this generation an education in green energy; an education that this individual obviously hasn't recieved.

Project Update

Seniors Amanda Lopez, Stephanie Bacher and Meranda Brown tackled and completed their assignment in less than 3 weeks, an amazing feat considering that the trio knew nothing about cisterns until they signed on to complete that task. They went to various local specialists to get the gist of creating and taking care of a cistern, doing most of the hard work themselves. The cistern will be placed along the side of the biodiesel building and will collect fresh rainwater to be used in The Center's projects.

Also today, the concrete being used to repair the fueling station finished setting, the team that made the repair has moved on to helping the Auto team sand down the Mercedes.

Center is visited by The Braitmeyer Foundation

Early this morning the Key West Alternative Energy Center recieved a very special and important visit. The Braitmeyer Foundation is a family run organization that gives grants to innovative programs in order to enhance pre-collegiate learning. At 9 O'clock the foundation met with the Center's sponsor, Josh Clearman, to get a tour of the Center and to discuss the possible grant for a mobile solar array. The Energy Center would use the mobile solar array to gather data so that we can optomize the use of solar energy in the area.

The great biodiesel clean up, before and after

For the past few days, the Energy Center has been dealing with the massive amount of unprocessable grease that we have recieved. To that end we give our sincerest thanks to Tallow Masters for coming for to the Center and taking away our unusable grease for free. After filtering more than 1000 gallons of grease, there was quite a mess left over. In order to take care of this mess, the class organized a massive clean up. Even after this, there is still much work to be done to get everything squared away.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

                                     

A new paintjob

The Key West High School Alternative Energy Center Auto team has decicded to give the Center's Biodiesel fueled Mercedes a new paintjob. Today the team started to buff off the Mercedes green paint. Once they have stripped off all the old paint they plan on painting a design utilizing the school's colors, white gray and red.

On a less positive note, the Center must get rid of the white pickup truck that the Auto team worked so hard to get running because of the damage it recieved from the same accident that destroyed the fence line and did damage to the fueling station.

New planter boxes on the way

Today, students began measuring and cutting the wood that will be used to build another set of planter boxes. Just like the ones before them, theses boxes will be lined up against the building and have silverbutton wood trees planted in them. These trees will keep the sunlight from hitting the building directly, and therefore reducing cooling costs. The first set of boxes have already been placed along the building, filled with soil, and have a few plants in them.