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Connecticut’s Technical High School System is building energy-efficient buildings that will serve as laboratories for students to learn about green technology. WNPR’s Nancy Cohen reports the first one opened this week
It looks like a tiny, one-room version of a salt box style house. except it has photo voltaic panels, a solar thermal hot water system and a geothermal heating and cooling system. Located on the E. C. Goodwin Technical High School campus in New Britain, the first of nine green construction laboratories was built by students and teachers. Superintendent Patricia Ciccone says the goal is to help students gain the knowledge to design, construct and maintain systems that are energy efficient and renewable. Ciccone says these are the first labs like this in the country.
“We are the first technical high school system in the nation to construct a hands-on green curriculum in these trades to insure that our students graduate with the skills they need to become part of the sustainable and renewable or clean energy workforce.”
The nine green construction labs will cost about $300,000 and were funded by the state’s Energy Efficiency Fund and Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority. In addition to the buildings, the funding will pay for training instructors in the Connecticut Technical High School System.
