Ellie Crosby speaks swiftly and clearly. She doesn’t use placeholders or qualifiers. She is crystal clear in her message about renewable energy.

“Getting youth involved is important because it comes down to us in the end,” she said.

A junior at Chippewa Falls High School, Crosby is one of three students on the school’s Green Team, a self-directed study under the guidance of science teacher Nick Gagnon. Over the course of two years, these motivated students will leverage federal and other grant dollars to improve energy efficiency and move their community toward a green energy future.

“The students get to pick their passion project,” said Gagnon, who started the Green Team course. “It’s not a hypothetical. If you feel like you own it, you can put your whole heart and soul into it.”

Zoey Eckwright, Chloe Johnson, and Crosby have already obtained drone pilot licenses so they can use a thermal imaging drone to map energy leaks. They’re helping a nonprofit youth camp, Our Nawakwa, with an energy audit. They won a grant so Hillcrest Elementary could buy smart strips that automatically shut off when inactive, saving the school about $800 a year. A second grant for the elementary school will fund energy demonstration kits, including kilowatt meters and different kinds of light bulbs

“Grant writing isn’t as bad as it seems,” Crosby said with a shrug. “You look at the guidelines and rubrics. They’re easy to write, as long as you have main, key points and data.” She also recommended reaching out to the granting agency- “something to set yourself apart” in a flood of emails and applications.

The Green Team is now collaborating with SolarShare Wisconsin Cooperative and OneEnergy Renewables, resulting in the donation of solar panels to Chippewa Falls High School. The students have toured a solar farm at nearby Hallie, Wisconsin and may be able to use the school’s thermal imaging drone to pinpoint panels that aren’t working.

They are also collaborating with Wisconsin’s K-12 Energy Education Program (KEEP) to develop a first-in-the-nation curriculum for agrivoltaics-agriculture alongside solar farms. The agrivoltaic curriculum development and solar generation in Hallie are supported by two Energizing Rural Communities Prize awards totaling $300,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy and funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).

Crosby, Eckwright and Johnson are the second Green Team cohort, following Chippewa Falls students Bella Biederman, Kamryn Glamann and Maddie Hunt. The first Green Team earned Energy Innovation Grant Program (EAPG) funding for a solar array and battery backup to power Hope Village, a community center and tiny homes for people transitioning out of homelessness.

EAPG funding was also provided by the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), this time administered by Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission. The Hope Village proposal written by the Green Team was the highest-scoring proposal in the state. “It was really awesome to see something like that in our community,” Crosby said of Hope Village’s ability to move off-grid. “It makes our community more aware of the changes that are happening right now.”

“They’re doing stuff that many adults never get to experience,” Gagnon said. “I’m learning with the kids.” Kids come to Chippewa Falls High School from a town of about 13,000 people, plus suburban outskirts, a wealthy lakeside community, and rural and agricultural areas. Both Crosby and Gagnon would like to see the Green Team model become available to high schoolers in more communities. “I want them to be changemakers, ultimately,” Gagnon said of his Green Team students. “That’s my goal for them, to follow their passion and ultimately help others at the end of the day.” Crosby is well on her way. “Personally, I want to go into the renewable energy field or environmental sustainability field,” she said. “This gives me a little head start.”