Groton school goes green

Looking to a greener future, Grasso Tech school is giving students a hands-on approach to learning about environmentally-friendly jobs. And at the same time, the school is even reducing its own carbon footprint.

"Right here, it shows in here, the magnet when the wind spins," Justine DeNobrega, a sophomore, said. "It creates electricity."

Electrical students are learning how to wire and install a wind turbine; it's training you just don't get at any other technical high school in the state. Or, at least yet.

Detelj: "Do you think this is gonna prepare you a little bit better for the future?"
DeNobrega: "Oh yeah, yeah definitely."

Grasso Tech is the first to have its own wind turbine which powers the school's greenhouse.

The maximum it generates is 1.9 kilowatts per hour and when it's not needed to run these pumps, it powers the school as well.

"I think it's very good because it doesn't leave a carbon footprint," James Stearns, a junior, said.

Stearns is a bio-environmental technology student and now sees a greener future for himself.

"We'll have first-hand knowledge above everybody else in how to run and operate wind turbines," Stearns said. "So, that's very exciting that we'll know how to do that."

Grasso Tech is about to go even greener. A meter will soon be hooked up to solar panels which will be installed on the hill right outside; installed and hooked up using student power, of course.

"The economy's changing, the workforce is changing, the jobs are changing," Alex Pesarik, a teacher, said.

And, now Pesarik's students are changing with the times.

"Since I have more experience with this I can not only do residential and commercial but also this which not a lot of people know about," DeNobrega, a sophomore, said.

The so-called green jobs of the future.

The wind turbine was donated to the school by Groton Utilities. In April, Grasso Tech plans to hold its first Green Technology and Career Expo open to other schools and the public.