"Farmington View celebrates solar panel debut"

By Rebecca Luedloff, OregonLive.com

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Smiling faces beamed inside the Farmington View Elementary gym on May 22 during a Solar Celebration inaugurating the school's new demonstration solar array.

The school is one of six in the nation to be selected for SolarWorld's Solar2School program this year, which offers schools a fully installed system for $5,000.

Farmington View Elementary is the second school in the country to receive solar panels and a monitor panel through the program. The monitor in the school lobby will show a constant readout of the system's performance, rain or shine. The system will produce about 1,880 kilowatts of electricity each year, enough to power one classroom.

During Tuesday's assembly, students learned facts such as: Oregon has an average of 174 days of sunshine a year and these panels were made here in Hillsboro.

Gordon Brinser, president of SolarWorld, passed out sunflower seeds to encourage all students to "think about the sun."

Aaron Clemmer of Pacific Solar installed the panels, partnering with SolarWorld and the Hillsboro School District on the project.