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.

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.