At Big Creek, the sun is always welcome

The sun is shining and at Glacier Institute’s Big Creek Educational Center, they’re making power without burning fuel. Through a $20,000 grant from Tom’s of Maine, the center now gets most of its electrical needs from a new solar power system.

The system took about five days to install about a month ago and so far it’s had a sizable impact on the small non-profit’s propane use.

“In the first day, it cut our generator use by 75 percent,” Big Creek program director Beau Servo said.

Staff at the center used to run a propane generator about four hours a day, he said. Now they run it about an hour a day — or not at all if the sun is shining, like it was last week.

The Big Creek center is off the grid. Servo said the camp, which hosts about 1,000 students and more than 200 adults each year, also has taken some conservation measures.

They no longer allow morning showers — students can take showers only at night — and they’ve changed all the light bulbs in the facility to energy-efficient bulbs.

With traditional bulbs, they were using more than 200 watts per dorm room. Now they use 22 watts.

Electricity powers the lights in the facility and the well pump. Propane is used to heat water for showers and for cooking. The propane generator will also recharge the solar system’s batteries if necessary — such as following an extended period of cloudy weather.

Servo said he’s worked the power system into the educational curriculum at the camp. Students learn what it’s like to go without and how to conserve energy.

The Glacier Institute was one of five $20,000 winners in Tom’s of Maine’s “50 States for Good” program earlier this year. Competition included voting on Facebook. Support from the public was instrumental in making the project one of the tops in the nation.