Idaho Fourth-grader Wins National Award

(KLIX) – An Idaho fourth-grader has recently been recognized with a national award.

Lily Colson, an elementary school student in Boise, created a solar project that won her the sustainability award, according to Idaho Power Co. Colson, who wants to see penguins and polar bears thrive in their natural habitat, made her project focus on the effects of climate change.

Idaho Power explained on a news release:

The need for clean energy is a worldwide problem that 10-year-old Lily Colson says she wants to address through something she calls Solar Lines. Her concept is to use flexible solar-power producing material to wrap existing power lines and poles, along with batteries, to generate electricity for homes and businesses.

The wires are already in place so they wouldn’t take up additional land like new solar farms do, and the power generated would be immediately tied to the electrical grid, Lily said.

Colson interviewed industry experts and created a three-panel display and an in-depth journal, as well as an oral presentation, which earned her a trip to the National Invention Convention in Dearborn, Mich., according to the Idaho Power. There she won the Stanley Black and Decker Sustainability Award.

The company said she first had to advance through local, regional and state competitions.

“I worked pretty hard on this to get to nationals,” she said. “That was my goal.”