STEWARTVILLE, Minn. (KTTC) – When you think of the word, ‘suitcase,’ you normally would associate it with something you put your belongings in for travel. For the past two weeks, Stewartville Middle School students packed up a ‘suitcase’ of their own, but it’s one that generates electricity. Known as a ‘solar suitcase,’ those working on the project says the contraption’s goal is to bring light to an Eastern African school in need.
Students used 20 solar suitcase kits, which the school borrowed from Southeast Service Cooperative in Rochester. When fully assembled and attached to a solar panel, the suitcases become a stand-alone 12-volt DC solar power system.
“The solar panel gets installed by people over in those countries,” Stewartville High School and Middle School teacher Riley Buchheit said. “[It] allows five or six lights to be…
