By Madhu Neb
Professor Green Thumb struggled to fit the solar panels on the terrace of Sharda International School, helped by ten children and the installation team. The winds were blowing strong and kept dislodging the solar panels from their position. The children worked in pairs, one class 5, and one class 10 students. The solar panels would help conserve electricity and save the school Rs. 8 lakh a year.
As they worked, the good professor recalled introducing the children to solar toys two years ago, their first exposure to the sun’s power that could make a toy work without depending on an external electrical battery. He further educated them on the benefits of renewable energy. That is how the students decided to propose solar panelling for the entire school to the trustees and directors.
The students calculated that this one-time investment of Rs. 28 lakhs with lifetime use could avoid carbon dioxide emissions by 646 tonnes, equivalent to planting 1,033 teak trees. Even the campus streets and gardens would have solar-powered lamps.
Their learnings inspired them that the Earth gets more energy from the sun in one hour than is utilized in the whole world in a year; it would take less than 1% of the Earth’s land area covered in solar panels to supply all of the world’s electricity needs, and if all the rooftops in India cover with solar panels, it will provide all the electricity requirements of the nation. They understood the cost-benefit ratio, too, that the amount of energy that goes into creating solar panels is paid back through clean electricity production within 1-2 years.
Under Professor Green Thumb’s tutelage, these children vowed to set an example for other schools, institutions, to the country and the world. As they discovered during their research, a solar panel can work for decades and that some installed in the 1970s are still generating electricity even today.
Ms. Madhu Neb, Founder, Talking Heads Content Agency , shared this authored article with Prittle Prattle News .
