Gov. John Baldacci this morning recognized Yarmouth High School students for their efforts to fight global warming.

The governor presented the school a Voluntary Renewable Resource Fund grant of $26,400 for a student-initiated, working solar power project, according to a statement released after the event.

The project involves the construction of a solar-powered energy system that will produce approximately 3,600 kilowatt hours of clean electricity for the school annually, offsetting 4,200 pounds of carbon dioxide, 6.5 pounds of sulphur oxide and more than 5 pounds of nitrogen oxide emissions each year.

The Voluntary Renewable Resource Fund was established by the Legislature in 2000 and is supported by contributions consumers make on their electric bills. The Maine Public Utilities Commission, which operates the fund, offers grants of up to $50,000 to qualifying Maine-based nonprofits for the development of projects utilizing renewable resources such as wind, water, sun, wood, tides, trash-to-energy, fuel cells and geothermal energy.

Baldacci said the school's project was not only special in that it would produce clean electricity for the school’s use, but also because it was student-initiated from the concept to the construction phase.

The three students who initiated the grant are Emma Roose, Nell Pierce and Hannah Yardley. Two other students, Cody Shankman and Louis Waxman, are working on raising the remaining funds needed for the project.

The grant provides the students with 80 percent of the cost of the project. Students are now working to raise the approximately $6,000 needed for completion of the project.

This year 10 projects won a total of $362,889 in awards from the fund. Seven of the projects involved solar energy, two involved wind power and one involved tidal power.

For more information on the Voluntary Renewable Resource Fund, contact Shirley Bartlett of the PUC at 287-3318 or Shirley.bartlett@maine.gov or visit the MPUC website - www.maine.gov/mpuc/