With the Earth warming faster than it has in the past thousand years, we are in desperate need of ways to stop this change in our climate. One way we can is by using solar panels.

Burning fossil fuels such as gas, coal, and oil to create energy is one of the main reasons our climate is overheating. The gasses released into the atmosphere trap the sun’s heat inside, causing the temperature on Earth to rise. Solar panels convert sunlight into electricity, but don’t produce any greenhouse gasses, making them a better choice for the atmosphere.

Three years ago, in 2021, the Santa Barbara Unified School District began building solar panels at its schools. Dos Pueblos High School was one of the 14 locations the panels were installed in. However, despite being finished, the DPHS solar panels never went online.

Along with DPHS, the San Marcos High School solar panels are not online, leaving the two schools as the only high schools left in the SBUSD with non-active solar panels.

Once active, the solar panels will provide multiple benefits to our school. According to DPHS Principal Bill Woodard, once the solar panels go online, which should be around the end of December this year, they are predicted to supply “up to 90 percent of the power on Dos Pueblos.”

This would reduce the cost of electricity while providing a cleaner environment and more efficient electrical system. The panels will also power a backup battery system in case power is lost.

”It’s going to serve as battery backup for the entire neighborhood, so if power goes out because of a fire or whatnot, the batteries will kick on and keep supplying power to our school and into the local neighborhood,” Woodard said.

Solar panels are one small step towards a better climate and offer a much cleaner way of generating energy for our planet. Aside from that, they also produce numerous benefits to our school. The sooner we can get them online, the better.