Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon

We are growing produce year round. We avoid heating the greenhouse with the existing natural gas furnace by using solar thermal panels and a biomass burner with in floor water tubing for heat. By growing produce locally, we are also hoping to reduce the fuel burned by trucks importing food to Willmar.

There have been over 50 Willmar Senior High students directly involved with the project since it started in 2007. There have also been over 20 students from the Prairie Lakes Youth program science classes and another 12 from Willmar Public School’s Service Learning Classes that have been involved with the community greenhouse.

Economic benefits of this project include promoting and fostering markets for locally grown produce as well as for local garden and soil supplements.
We are also modeling reduction of fossil fuel consumption to heat a building by :
1. insulating the greenhouse.
2. using water buckets as thermal mass to retain heat.
3. limiting our production to growing cold weather crops.
4. Using free solar input from the sun passively, as well as in thermal collectors.

We decreased fossil fuel consumption and therefore combustion emissions through our hybrid heating system’s use of solar and biomass. Through arrangements with Sunrise Agra Biofuels and Carmike Cinema, we are also demonstrating use of local biomass resources.
We also only use sustainable fertilizers and soil media instead of synthetic. This includes using coconut coir instead of peat moss, to help preserve peatlands. We also apply the ash from our biomass burner as a soil supplement.