Solar Power Inspirations and Aspirations

Posted on January 8th, 2021.

Just before winter break, grade 7 and 8 Dunecrest Million Solar Stars students presented their case for Dunecrest going solar to the school’s leadership committee. Committee members included Head of School, Mr. Bill; Secondary School Principal, Mr. Pat; Assistant Secondary School Principal, Mr. Carter; Business Manager Mr. Khouzam; Director of Communications, Ms. Java and Managing Director of Esol Education, Mr. Abushakra.

In order to prepare for the presentation, students studied architectural renderings of the school and determined where and how to place solar panels. Next, students chose whatever software or rendering application they felt would showcase their designs best. Some students opted to work in Minecraft while others used Tinker CAD, which is similar to AutoCAD and can be used for 3D printing.

Once the designs were complete, students created presentations to showcase their designs and business cases. The committee reviewed proposals for solar charging stations; adding solar panels to campus parking and grandstands and even analyzed the return on investment, payback period and IRR of the project.

Committee members were interested in drilling down on capital and running costs, useful life of the panels, techniques to affix panels to the building and how to clean and maintain them. Students requested support in understanding the school’s utility bills in greater detail and in approaching firms for proposals to carry out the installation and maintenance.

It was a significant first step for these MSS warriors. The leadership committee was very impressed with their initial ideas and looks forward to helping the students collect their research and refine their investment proposals. (Credit: Team Dunecrest Making Waves)

If you want to help engage one million students to scale up solar power at schools, be like Dr. Jane & take the Million Solar Stars Pledge!!!

#solar #education #rootsandshootsUAE #SolarStarJane