Schools’ role in inculcating value of renewable energy highlighted

Renewable energy as an elective or a subject in the school curriculum could play an important role in empowering young minds towards sustainable development, an official of Qatar Solar Technologies (QSTec) has said.“In the future, what I would like to see is that schools and universities have solar energy and sustainability as programmes in their curriculum. We have started this in our Shams Generation programme, but we would like to do more,” QSTec Chairman and CEO Dr Khalid K al-Hajri told Gulf Times in an interview.He added: “We started in universities with Texas A&M Qatar and Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar students joining forces to create some amazing solar design collaborations.”Al-Hajri said QSTec’s initiative has expanded from primary and high school to universities, with Texas A&M and VCUQ participating in Shams Generation’s university Level 3 programme.He said the initiative combines “function and design.” Graphic artists from VCUQ create the design while Texas A&M provides the mechanical and electrical expertise to form a product, al-Hajri explained.Al-Hajri said the Shams Generation solar educational initiative is an interactive learning programme that aims to bridge the knowledge gap and inspire the next generation of engineers, artists, and renewable energy entrepreneurs.Starting with three levels of learning, QSTec’s goal is to expand the Shams Generation programme and develop it to become a global showcase of innovation learning. Shams, al-Hajri pointed out, means ‘sun’ in Arabic.“Universities are a goal that is now becoming a reality. We started originally in years 4 to 10 in middle and high schools as we have three levels of programmes. Shams Generation is all solar learning from QSTec from year 4 level to university,” al-Hajri said.On Monday (April 24), al-Hajri will lead the inauguration ceremony of the Shams Generation 3 Collective Exhibition at the Fire Station – Annex Room.  In its second edition, Shams Generation reached 20 schools and 5,000 students and thousands more families through major public events across Qatar. Since its inception three years ago, al-Hajri said the programme now reached over 16,000 participants.“The Shams Generation initiative encourages and inspires the youth to tap renewable sources of energy and to practice sustainable development at a young age. We want to inculcate this knowledge while they are still young,” al-Hajri emphasised.Last year, QSTec won awards for its Shams Generation solar education initiative. In Qatar, al-Hajri said there is a growing awareness on the role of renewable energy, particularly solar technology, in creating a sustainable economy for the next generation. “This only shows that people understand the importance of solar technology and it gives confidence that there is a future for the industry,” he said.He added: “As part of QSTec’s Shams Generation initiative, we are driving the application of the next generation of solar energy technologies. We’d like to see some of these students go on to develop some of Qatar’s upcoming solar projects, and Shams Generation is enabling this to happen.”