As the Prince George’s County Public School System celebrated National Energy Efficiency Day, school leaders and others from the Maryland community gathered at Ellen Ochoa Middle School in Landover Hills to see what the future of new school construction will be like.
A new school that opened this fall, Ellen Ochoa Middle School, sits on a big plot of land. Underground there are 90 geothermal wells that run 400 feet deep, but at ground level, one can’t even tell.
“What you have is a system that uses groundwater and uses the temperature of that groundwater in order to heat and cool the building,” Shawn Matlock, director of the Office of Alternative Infrastructure Planning and Development for Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS), said. “You basically run into a set of loops, and the number of times you run through it either heats or cools the water, and it runs through the building, and that heat and cools the building.”
Seven of the eight new schools currently being built will also have new geothermal wells to help run a cheaper, cleaner heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. The one school that won’t, Hyattsville Elementary, sits on a piece of land too small to utilize. It will have solar panels just like the other new schools, though.
“They (geothermal wells) provide all of the energy necessary to heat and cool this building, saving 111% in energy costs for this building,” Matlock said. “In addition, you have 1,620 solar panels on the roof of this building, providing 753 kilowatts of energy to supply all the energy for this school.”
About 90% of the entire roof is covered by solar panels. The electric bill last month was $3, Frederick Butler, administrative secretary to the principal at Ellen Ochoa Middle School, said. Soon it will produce more power than the school needs, thus sending it back into the surrounding neighborhood. “You think about the houses closest to the schools,” Butler said, “they’re getting ready to get some Ellen Ochoa energy.”
The school also boasts bigger windows to allow for more natural light, higher ceilings, and even a system that filters out more carbon dioxide from the inside, which will also help students.
In the parking lot at Ellen Ochoa Middle School was an electric school bus. The county is working to double the number of e-buses it has from around 20 to 40, using grant money to help defray some of the additional costs of an electric bus, which runs around $400,000 brand new versus about $150,000 for a diesel bus.
“Long term it will save us money,” Tony Spruill, senior operations supervisor of transportation for Prince George’s County schools said. “We know this is our future.” Spruill added that the future is where the school systems will begin to see savings in fuel and other costs, even though the up-front costs are greater.
“PGCPS is proud to lead the state in green initiatives,” Superintendent Millard House said. “We consistently lead the state in certified green schools, a reflection of our commitment to the environmental stewardship at every single level.”
Existing schools are also getting retrofitted with solar panels, and from now on, every new school the county builds will all follow the example being set at Ellen Ochoa.
“It costs no more than any of our other middle schools to build,” Matlock said. “In fact, now it’s going to be operating a lot less cost.
“We are going to build all of our schools like this now,” Matlock added. “And the reality is, it’s a revelation, because for years, people thought that building green was more expensive. It’s not.”
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