A new hands-on, solar power generating learning lab in our region is setting up our young people for a bright future in our changing climate and changing economy.

Leaders from BrightRidge flipped a symbolic oversized light switch last week to dedicate the new solar learning lab near the utility’s Boones Creek headquarters, but the importance of switching our thinking about energy and how we produce it cannot be understated.

Global temperatures have risen 1.9 degrees since the Industrial Revolution, and the preponderance of evidence indicates that human activities, like releasing greenhouse gases by burning fossil fuels, is mostly responsible.

Faced with the negative effects of the changing climate, nations and private companies have slowly begun acknowledging the need for a shift from our overreliance on fossil fuels and are trying to encourage and expand the use of cleaner energy.

BrightRidge, as a major provider of electricity in the region, is doing its part. With help from the Tennessee Valley Authority and its partners at solar company Silicon Ranch, the public utility has built two solar farms in Washington County with the combined capacity to produce 14 megawatts of electricity.

This new solar learning lab is small in comparison, producing only 500 kilowatts of power, but the opportunities it opens up for grade school students in our area is invaluable.

Our students can get a leg up on the way to careers in a growing sector of our economy by training with industry professionals here at home.

Hopefully, if the TVA and BrightRidge continue expanding clean energy projects in the region, there will be jobs here for them when they graduate.

With a little pre-planning and some foresight, we can prepare our children, and our region, for success in the future.

-Johnson City Press