Dubai schools win Dh120k at green energy competition

The competition culminated in an award ceremony to honour the brilliant green vision of the students.

Three schools in Dubai have won Dh40,000 each for their green energy projects. The schools were selected from the 33 participants of the Dubai Vision - Creating the Future Capital of Solar Energy competition that was launched late last year.
The Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding (SMCCU) joined hands with the 'Dubai Solar Schools Initiative by ArchItaly Green Energy DMCC' and the Clean Energy Business Council to provide a platform for the Dubai students to design their city.
Submissions were categorised into recycling crafts (years 1 to 4), sustainability writing (years 5 to 8), and imagining tomorrow through conceptual models (years 9 to 12).
On Monday, the competition culminated in an award ceremony to honour the brilliant green vision of the students.
Our Own High School, Al Warqa'a, won the recycling crafts category. The students presented a fully solar-powered city with vertical forests as part of residential towers - and they even involved their parents in collecting recycled materials for the models. 
Buds Public School penned a novel, Green Pen - Green Eye, and won in the sustainability writing category. Each chapter was written by a different student and ultimately told a story that drove the narrative from a dream to affecting change as it slowly built a green city. "This submission really touched my heart. Every chapter claimed Dubai as 'my city' regardless of where the child originally came from - Dubai is now their home," said Giulia Senigaglia, education coordinator, SMCCU. 
The winning submission for the category that imagines tomorrow with a conceptual model came from New Indian Model School. The students developed an automatic waste segregator that separates paper, plastic, wood, metal and glass. The idea took shape from their daily routine - they do not let water bottles at school go to waste and use them to plant saplings instead.
"This has been an amazing journey with the schools. Even at a young age, the students have an imagination that reflects the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai - be it a technological, social or humanitarian project. At the SMCCU, we believe this is just the beginning, not an end. We will soon announce the second edition of the competition with which we hope to bring about partnerships between the public and private schools," added Senigaglia.
Schools think solar
While the students were busy developing their projects this year, the schools themselves have been contemplating going completely solar with the installation of solar panels on their rooftops. "The vision of this country is an example for the world.  Schools are important stakeholders in Dubai's goal to operate on 75% solar energy by the year 2050," said David Provenzani, Managing Director, ArchItaly Green Energy DMCC, a design and management consultancy that focuses on green initiatives, and organiser of the competition.
He added, "It is important for children to see sustainability as part of their daily life. It is with this in mind that we approached the SMCCU as an education partner. We want the children to use solar labs and think of green careers." With solar panels in schools, the students can bring their environment-related classes and social clubs to life - they can take projects a step further into a future that's completely sustainable and clean.
"We don't compete with others; we are our own benchmark. We have the best minds working together to create a green future." - Abdulla bin Eisa Al Serkal, Director, Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding
eva@khaleejtimes.com