GRE bike gets kids energized
By Michael Johnson, Editor
Biking season has returned and as many people know, bike riding is a fun and healthy mode of transportation. It’s also an interesting way to teach youth about energy production, as Great River Energy’s North Dakota communications supervisor Lyndon Anderson knows very well. Anderson has visited with about 30 different classes and over 800 students as he takes an energy bike into the schools to teach about energy efficiency. It’s part of an opportunity to teach about energy to the surrounding communities that are part of the cooperative. “As a cooperative, Great River Energy is a part of the community,” Anderson said. “We believe it’s important - as part of that - to help support the youth in the communities surrounding our power plants. I saw the energy bike at a trade fair and knew that it would be a great educational tool to use when talking to students.” Anderson and the bike are visiting schools in Mercer, McLean, Oliver, Morton and Burleigh counties for now, near the two power plants in coal country, and also in Bismarck/Mandan where GRE also has an office and where many GRE employees live. The program will be offered in Stutsman county at some point, when Spiritwood Station is operating. When Anderson visited with the students at Underwood in March, the students had a chance to get on the bike and see how much energy they could produce, they then compared their output to the amount of energy needed to power lesser and greater efficiency bulbs.
