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Earlier this year, Clearloop opened a solar farm located between White Pine and Morristown on U.S. 25E.
Now, Clearloop is taking solar education a step further by providing resources and scholarships to area schools.
Students learn “Next Generation Science Standards” which are used by 44 states, including Tennessee.
Clearloop’s gift will help students better understand the standards.
Once students reach fourth grade, these standards are highly centered on understanding renewable energy resources. Tennessee’s “Academic Standards for Science” go beyond, including specific requirements for sixth grade students.
Local teachers have partnered with Clearloop to supplement classroom learning and help students understand these standards in the context of their own community’s energy generation.
Around 100 students from Meadowview Middle School in Hamblen County and White Pine School in Jefferson County attended the White Pine “Flip the Switch” event attended in May.
As part of the event, students were asked to write an essay on solar energy ahead of the event, and then toured the facility and participated in educational solar games. Teachers received solar energy activity kits for their classrooms.
Finally, Clearloop awarded a one-time $100,000 scholarship donation ($50,000 per school system) for high school seniors in Hamblen and Jefferson counties.
Bob Corney, co-founder and COO of Clearloop, a Silicon Ranch Company, discussed this project Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re developing programs overall across our project communities to help support teachers and students to learn about solar energy which aligns to state standards,” he said. “As we’re building these projects, renewable energy is going to much more common in the future in the southeast. As it happens, it’s an opportunity for us to help support interest in STEM education, science standard what we’re focused on now.”
Corney said that the ultimate goal is for students pursue education aimed at getting careers like the energy industry.
“The number of jobs we’ll need to build solar capacity across the southeast is growing pretty dramatically,”
Corney said. “These are good careers. A part of our goal is for students to continue their education. Ultimately, the more skilled the kids coming out of high school or college, the opportunities are greater.”
As Co-founder of Clearloop, he sees the solar project as a catalyst for interest in continuing careers.
“Part of our mission is to be a good neighbor in our communities,” he said. “Education is a way we’ve found to be a central importance in our mission.
“We put a big focus to support a diverse and well-equipped quintech workforce. In our state, we’re well positioned in a lot of ways, solar is growing in our state, EV manufacturing, the Blue Oval city (by Ford Motor Company) and great resources as UT-K which is doing a great job and we have really bright motivated kids.
“We want to open as many paths for them as possible,” Corney said. “We have a lot of great assets, great motivated kids. It’s part of what we do as our mission.”
Corney sees this project as improving the chances of students to be lifelong learners and to take control of their career paths.
“To pursue an interest, such as an electrician, engineer, car designer or more, there’s great jobs in completing school. We were really fortunate to connect with a lot of great people in Jefferson and Hamblen counties.”
As the White Pine solar farm was going up, there were two customers who necessitated the project, Intuit and REI.
“Intuit was the first customer,” Corney said. “Without their support, we wouldn’t have been able to develop the ‘Energizing Prosperity’ scholarship programs. We have donated scholarships to Jefferson and Hamblen counties $10,000 per year for five years.”
The first of those scholarships will be awarded in spring 2025.
“It gave us an opportunity to listen to Superintendents Arnold Bunch and Jefferson County Schools Director Dr. Tommy Arnold. They helped us design the programs in a way that allows students to develop their careers,” Corney said.
Corney said that Clearloop is bringing the benefits of new energy transitions to more and more communities like Jefferson and Hamblen counties that haven’t had this kind of development in the past.
“For the energy transition to be meaningful, we have to focus on our partnerships in these communities,” he said. “We had lots of support from Walters State President Tony Miksa and Tennessee College of Applied Technology President Susie Cox. They helped us to think through what would be meaningful for the communities.”
At the “Flip the Switch” event last Spring in White Pine, a total of 100 students, 60 from Meadowview, 40-45 Beta Club students at White Pine School participated at the event.
“Solar is a great national resource,” Corney said. “It’s reached back into agriculture as well as we are harvesting energy.”
Corney said that all of the power generated will go into the local group system to serve homes and schools.
“That adds resilience to the grid load,” he said. “It allows for a lot of opportunities. We just do some really cool stuff. I’m grateful to work closely with so many people.”
Corney said that if the White Pine Solar Project is done right, the farm will be able to operate for 40 years with enough power harvested to work for 400 homes in Jefferson and Hamblen counties.
“Being able to harvest without having to pay for fuel, it’s a great opportunity to show our gratitude to the community,” Corney said.
Energy certificates donated to Intuit will be donated to White Pine and the new Lincoln Heights Elementary School to open in January.
“While that’s a small thing, it’s important because it shows that the community is working for the future,” Corney said.
“We’ll be working with the Green Power Partnership that recognizes green power. We had plaques for each school to display (White Pine and new Lincoln Heights Elementary).
“We have a responsibility as a company that the farm operates at it should. We’re grateful to be part of Silicon Ranch. We have great experts and leaders that are helping us do this,” Corney said.
The great thing about the project, according to Corney, is that Clearloop was able to think big.
“They really wanted us to think big,” Corney said. “We asked, ‘What can we do to add value to the community?’ We’re working on plans to be able to be involved in the community.”
The White Pine Solar Farm was Clearloop’s third project that came online just before their fourth, fifth and sixth projects came about. It was something Clearloop wanted to do as a company to support the community.
“We’ll provide teachers with resources, finding stuff that aligns with the state standards and provide teachers on how to include this in their courses,” Corney said. “You’re only new for a little while, use it to do big things. We want to be a catalyst for positive impacts in local communities. For us, it’s a long-term partnership in the community. This was unique one where we had willing customers. That led to the scholarship program and our ongoing work. This Is not the last time we’ll connect with the schools. We won’t take away from their educational experience.”
Clearloop was also at the Future Ready Job Fair at the WSCC Expo Center in White Pine this past winter.
“What makes it all possible is a collaborative relationship with our partners and companies,” he said. “We want to see what happens with these students. We went to the Future Ready Job Fair in January involving middle school students in five counties. We showed all of the jobs in solar development. We use a lot of accountants, lawyers, developers…There’s just a lot.
“We’re going to need a lot of great workers to develop our portfolio of projects on this energy project. We want to have an opportunity to connect the dots,” Corney said.
For more on the “Flip the Switch Event” in May, go to here
Read original article at Citizen Tribune.
