Harvey Mudd College students Jackson Castro \u201922, Kasey Chung \u201925, Brittany Pan \u201924, Amy Yuan \u201924, Shivani Manivasagan \u201925 and Jackson Philion \u201925 partnered with students from Pomona College and Cal Poly Pomona for the 2022 Pando Days Program. Their project, which won the Pando Award for Feasibility and Viability, aims to place a state-of-the-art, nonprofit solar panel factory in each of Los Angeles County\u2019s five supervisorial districts.
For \u201cZeroing in on Solar: Developing a strategic plan to place non-profit solar panel factories in Los Angeles County\u2019s underserved communities,\u201d the team partnered with Community Home Energy Revolution Project (CHERP), which established the first replicable, nonprofit solar panel assembly factory in Pomona. They then identified additional locations in the other four supervisorial districts by using data that showed areas burdened by environmental justice markers like high energy costs. A strategic plan was produced to identify economic, political and community partnership opportunities for each location. These community connections will ensure that the resulting community-run facility has the capacity to create solar manufacturing and installation jobs by producing solar panels and selling them to anchor businesses, and school districts within its city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTheir project is all about jobs, patented solar photovoltaics technology and social equity,\u201d says Richard Haskell, team advisor, professor emeritus of physics and former director of the Center for Environmental Studies, now part of the Hixon Center for Climate and the Environment. \u201cStudents’ initial interest and ultimate feelings about the project centered on the opportunity to put their boots on the ground and devote their time and energy to measurable accomplishments in combating climate change in a timely way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pando Days program began in 2019 and was created to bring together educators in the arts, humanities, sciences and communications to help advance sustainable development in the greater Los Angeles area. Every year, they ask participants to inspire themselves and others with ingenious new solutions and plans to solve big problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n