O Castro will install solar panels with Endesa X to reduce the impact of climate change.

To raise awareness of the environment and sustainability so that, over time, today's children and adolescents will pass it on from generation to generation. With this aim in mind, Globeducate, one of the world's top five educational groups, and Endesa X, Endesa's energy services subsidiary, have joined forces. Together they have created an educational project that goes from the classroom to the rooftop, where photovoltaic solar plants for self-consumption will be installed in 9 schools in Spain.

Altogether, more than 2,040 photovoltaic modules will be installed on the flat roofs of the schools, which represents a total power of 1.1 MWp and is expected to produce around 1,200 MWh/year for self-consumption. This will cover 30% of the educational group's energy needs in these buildings and will enable it to make firm progress on its path towards sustainability, as it will reduce its carbon footprint by 293 tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to the absorption capacity of 1,755 trees/year.

This initiative will not only reduce traditional energy consumption, reducing the environmental impact, but will also raise awareness in the educational community of the importance of adopting measures that generate a real impact on environmental protection, both locally and globally, while opening a new educational channel by involving students in the installation of the panels and in monitoring the impact that the project will have on their local environment. "Our mission, Shaping the World, is about changing the world, and our students can and should be at the centre of this change, empowering them to take charge. A clear example is the initiative that has resulted in the development of this ambitious and pioneering project", explains the CEO of Globeducate Spain and Andorra, Carolina Rodríguez Inciarte.

The project, which is being carried out in collaboration with and with advice from Endesa X experts, involves the active participation of school students, who will be involved in all phases of the project, from its initial approach to its design, implementation and impact measurement. "A complete initiative that combines soft skills - so necessary to face the challenges of the world we live in today - with more academic scientific content, such as measuring energy consumption to design the project and analysing data to subsequently measure its impact", adds Rodríguez Inciarte.

Webinar

Endesa X has already begun this week to train students in solar energy as part of Globeducate's Eco Week. Specifically, on Wednesday, two face-to-face sessions were held at Agora Granada College International School - one for primary education and the other for secondary education - to which more than 3,600 students and a hundred teachers from the other eight schools in the group participating in this project also connected via webinar format.

Jose Carlos Fernández Rey, head of B2B Sales Channels at Endesa X, gave the classes with theoretical and practical content: first he gave a brief overview of what renewable energies are and then, through a presentation adapted to his audience, he explained in detail the different parts of a solar photovoltaic installation, how it works and the best location and orientation, among other things.

 

"The most fun part was when we proposed two case studies to the students that they will be solving over the next few days: first we imagined that we were installing photovoltaic solar panels in their homes or in one of their surroundings and, from there, and with the tools and knowledge that we provided them with, they had to study how many panels could be installed to generate 30% of the energy we need at home. We also did the same exercise, sizing the photovoltaic plant for their schools and we asked them several questions to solve", emphasises Fernández Rey. Thus, the students are now studying in the classrooms how much power the solar installation to be built by Endesa X should have, what is the best orientation, how much clean energy it will produce and how much CO2 emissions will be saved, among other things.

The challenge of installing solar panels in the group's schools in Spain during this school year came from the Globeducate student community, led by the Eco Committees of each school's Eco Schools programme, aware of the importance of doing their bit in this great challenge to curb the impact of climate change on our planet. Last October, eight of the twelve Globeducate schools in Spain and Andorra officially received the Green Flag for sustainability awarded by ADEAC (the Association for Environmental and Consumer Education), in recognition of all the environmental awareness-raising work carried out both inside and outside the classroom by the schools' educational communities and which put the finishing touch to three years of work within Eco Schools, the world's largest programme working for sustainability in education. The award of this distinction was an incentive to continue working for the care of the environment and the sustainability of our surroundings. The installation of solar panels that will now be carried out by Endesa X is an example of this.