KEY POINTS:
Inglewood High School in Taranaki steps into the future today with a pilot scheme to generate its own power.
The school will flick a switch to start a ground-breaking pilot scheme which could eventually be installed in schools throughout the country and lead to huge energy savings.
New Plymouth mayor Peter Tennent was to launch the second phase of the scheme and switch on a wind turbine and solar photovoltaic cells.
A planned solar water heating unit and other conservation measures were expected to reduce the school's energy demands by 15 percent, said Antony Rhodes, from Venture Taranaki which is also part of the two stage project.
"Stage one was about getting it into the curriculum, studying conservation. Stage two is about generation, creating electricity."
Mr Rhodes said for a small town it was an innovative project and it was hoped to have a "really good spin-off through their families and change the electricity usage patterns for the whole town".
The pilot project was a first for New Zealand and was a collaboration between the Ministry for the Environment, Venture Taranaki, and Inglewood High School.
The ministry and Venture Taranaki shared the $100,000 cost of the project and hoped to expand it to other schools if it was successful.
Ministry spokeswoman Lucy Green said the project should raise people's awareness of energy efficiency and encourage people to rethink energy consumption.
"The opportunity to replicate this pilot throughout schools would carry with it the potential for huge energy saving benefits," she said.
- NZPA
