How many homes has Former President Jimmy Carter helped powering with clean energy?

Grade level: 4th – 6th grades

Skills: Multiplication (decimals)

Related environmental issues: Renewable Energy

Former President Jimmy Carter is a big supporter of renewable energy and helped a solar farm project which constructed as many as 3,850 of solar panels in his hometown in Georgia. He also installed 320 solar panels on the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.

Jimmy-Carter-solar-farm-in-Plains-via-SolAmerica-570x326

Plains Solar Farm, Georgia (Photo: Futurism)

  1. Each solar panel can power 1.3 American homes. How many homes can the solar farm power?
  2. How many homes can the solar panels on the Library power?
  3. How many homes has Former President Jimmy Carter helped powering with clean energy?

 

Sources: New York Times, Feb 11, 2017. Jimmy Carter Makes a Stand for Solar, Decades After the Cardigan Sweater

Futurism, July 11, 2017. Former President Jimmy Carter Just Made a Solar Farm to Power Half His City

 

Note 1) The Plains solar farm generates 55 million kilowatt hours per year.

Note 2) The average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,766 kilowatthours (kWh). (U.S. Energy Information Administration)

 

Note 3) The numbers were slightly modified. The actual numbers of solar panels are 3,852 and 324.

 

 

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Answer keys

  1. 5,005 homes    (3,850 x 1.3 = 5,005)
  2. 416 (320 x 1.3 = 416)
  3. 5,421 homes (5,005 + 416 = 5,421)