Making Repairs

A team of students has been charged with repairing a section of the Center that was destroyed in a car accident. A car that was driving recklessly near the Center lost control and then collided with old fueling station on the side of the Biodiesel building, cracking the concrete there as well as ruining much of the fence line. Students John Benavides and Sandito Santiago are planning the repairs, while Carson Neymoss, Ryu Wada, Trevoi Gordon, Michael Labounty and Alexi Halpern will do the construction and concrete pouring in order to repair the fueling station. A plan to fix the fence is still in the works.

Center hits Home Depot... again

In preparation for the upcoming projects, the Key West High School Alternatvie Energy Center went to Home Depot for the third time this year in order to gather the supplies needed.

Back in Action

After a long Holiday break and an extended section of the physics side of the class, the Key West High School Alternative Energy Center has started operating again. Today, students laid out the class's goals then split up into teams in order to achieve them. We will describe each teams goals and give you updates on thier progress just as we did before. One of the main goals this time around is to start to process the large amounts of grease that the Center has collected. The class has already converted 500 gallons of it into biodiesel and has set a goal to have all the excess grease filtered by this friday.

Reviewing for Exams

With all that goes in biodiesel, it is often easy to forget that it is still, in fact, a class in high school. Today, projects were put on hold in order to review for our exam, which will cover physics as well as energy related topics such as petroleum and chemistry. The exam is scheduled on the friday of next week meaning we will be reviewing until that date. Projects will resume after the holiday break.

Reusing Old Parts

In the spirit of recycling, the Alternative Energy Center is taking apart an old, broken down cherrypicker in order to use its parts. Today, students Carson Neymoss, Mike Labounty and Ryu Wada finished removing a solar panel and control panel from the broken-down machine. The parts are being retooled and will soon be used for education.

Major donation made to Biodiesel

Enclosed in this card were two checks totaling $1100 from Michael McCloud, a local singer/songwriter, Rose Jones, his wife and Mr.McCloud parents. The Key West Highschool Alternative Energy Center thanks Mr.McCloud, his parents and Mrs.Jones for their generous donations; the money will be extremely helpful in supporting the Center's current projects.
The Key West Alternative Energy Center would also like to take this opportunity to thank Anchor towing and Scott Feicht. The towing company agreed to move the Center's mercedes 25 miles up the Keys for only a small sum of money. There it was worked on by Mr.Feicht, who completely repaired the vehicle for free.

Automotive Team Gets Truck Running, Biodiesel Cabinet Finished

After weeks of hard work, the biodiesel automotive team finally found the missing piece of the puzzle to get the truck running. After replacing the fuel pump, the truck began to run properly for the first time in years.

Also today, Sandito Santiago and John Benavides put the finishing touches on their grease storage cabinet, making it ready for donations.