Learning about Renewable Energy

At any given moment, on our St Peters Indooroopilly campus, students learn and experience education in a range of ways. While one class studies Maths, another might be building furniture; when one is out on the oval, another learns a dance routine for the end of Term 3 Years 4-6 Hip Hop Dance Spectacular. College life is never dull at St Peters—in fact, the campus even shone a little brighter last week, thanks to our Year 6 cohort and a special visit from SolarBuddy and Kenmore Rotary.

The visit was part of a renewable energy education effort. Our Year 6 students got the chance to build upon their knowledge of alternate energy sources and take useful steps to combat global energy poverty. So just what did they get up to? 

SolarBuddy Education

SolarBuddy was launched in 2016. The organisation’s goal is to raise global awareness about energy poverty and design solar light solutions for the most at-risk communities around the world. Currently, one in ten people live in energy poverty. To stop themselves from being plunged into darkness at sundown, they often turn to unsafe energy sources, such as kerosene or diesel. SolarBuddy aims to gift six million solar lights to children living in energy poverty by 2030. This year, St Peters’ Year 6 students helped SolarBuddy get a little closer to that goal!

Gifting Solar

A life lived in energy poverty is not just one spent in the dark—a lack of reliable energy can impact the health and education of entire communities. During their SolarBuddy workshop, our Year 6 students learnt that, in Papua New Guinea (PNG), more than 1.2 million children don’t have access to stable electricity, meaning that they’re unable to study at night. The flow-on effects of this are huge—an inability to continue learning after dusk can lead to intergenerational illiteracy and poverty. Solar lights offer the gift of sight after the sun sets.

Year 6s’ Contribution

During the SolarBuddy workshop, every Year 6 student at St Peters Indooroopilly made a solar light for a child in PNG. They also wrote letters to the recipient of their lights, their ‘Solar Buddy’. On all accounts, the workshop was a huge success. The students were enthusiastic and displayed a high level of international-mindedness.

“They inspired me with their high level of engagement, knowledge in renewable energy and passion for ending energy poverty,” Magdalene St Clare (of SolarBuddy) said.

The cohort’s gift of solar lights will:

• positively impact 625 lives
• increase study hours after dark by 80%
• offset 19,375 CO2e kg carbon emissions
• reduce kerosene expenditure by 80%

What an incredible gift! Well done, Year 6, and thank you to SolarBuddy and Rotary Kenmore for making it all possible. To find out more about Year 6 or the Primary Years at St Peters Indooroopilly, click here.