Thursday, March 29, 2007

Pleasant Prairie Greenhouse Goes Green--Featured during Energy Fair


PRESS RELEASE: Evansville Business Uses Green Energy
CONTACT: Robin Lopez-Grignon, Coordinator, Evansville Community Partnership, 608-882-0598 ecpi@eishome.com
DATE: March 29, 2007
RELEASE: 1 page

PHOTOS
ATTACHED: 1.) Pleasant Prairie Greenhouse Solar Panels & Kirk the official greeter
Area Greenhouse Uses “Green” Energy
Free Tour of Solar Panels …
Pleasant Prairie Greenhouse will offer free tours of their solar panel operation during Evansville’s Earth Day Energy Fair on April 27th. A free tour bus will leave the intermediate school at 5:00 pm to Pleasant Prairie Greenhouse, 16907 W. County Trunk C and return to the fieldhouse at 6:00 pm. The Energy Fair and Solar Panel tour is free and open to the public but children should be accompanied by an adult. The greenhouse will also be open for tours on Saturday, April 28th from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm.
The Journey to Green Energy….
Going to green energy started when Kendall Wethal’s daughter, Kate, worked on her 5th grade science project about solar energy. The project was exhibited at Evansville’s annual earth day energy fair. After helping his daughter make a homemade solar energy collector to heat water, Kendall wanted to explore ways to run his greenhouse business on solar too. Kendal says, “First I built my own 4 x 8 solar energy collector. It worked so well we now have a five-panel commercial solar evacuated tube collector.” The solar panels capture the sun’s energy, heat up the solution, pump it into a storage system and then reuse it for heating during the night. Pleasant Prairie Greenhouse has been producing green electricity since October 2006 with the help of local contractors Albright Electric & Solar and Aire Serv Heating.

Future Plans….
“Our next step will be capturing wind energy using a small wind turbine and installing biofuel boilers,” says Wethal. “Our mission is to produce healthy, beautiful plants while making and using green energy to become more self-sufficient and environmentally friendly.” The 5th annual Evansville Earth Day Energy Fair is on April 27th from 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the fieldhouse, 320 Fair Street in Evansville. The fair is sponsored by Evansville Water and Light, the Evansville Community Partnership, the Evansville Initiative, and the Evansville Community School District. For more information, contact Robin Lopez-Grignon, ECP Coordinator, at 608/882-0598 or http://us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=ecpi@eishome.com.
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