Posts Tagged ‘education’
Last week we started the Perth Solar City Bring It Down Challenge, where seven schools are being challenged to bring down their energy use over seven weeks.
Round one of the competition is over and we’re incredibly pleased that every school has managed to reduce their energy use. Mundaring Christian College and Hillside Christian College are neck and neck at the moment, with Mundaring just pipping Hillside in Round 1 with an awesome 50% reduction in their energy use.
Ballajura Community College is the largest school in the competition, with a huge student population and a baseline energy use of over 24,000kWh per week, which is equivalent to about 220 average homes. While they only scored 10 points this round, I think the 6% reduction, equivalent to over 1,500kWh, is fantastic. To put 1,500kWh in perspective, its equivalent to the energy that Ballajura might get if they installed a 55kW PV array.
If you’d like to check out the complete results from round one, you can download the Western Power Bring It Down Challenge Round 1 Results (PDF).
Every school dashboard can be viewed from the Bring It Down page on the Perth Solar City web site, or you can click on the schools below to see how they are going:
Upper Swan Primary School
Ballajura Community College
Woodbridge Primary School
Mundaring Christian College
Hillside Christian College
Swan View Senior High School
Weld Square Primary School
Greensense is working with Western Power and the Perth Solar City project to run the Bring It Down challenge.
Seven Perth schools have been challenged to reduce their energy use over seven weeks. The school that makes the biggest saving will win a $10,000 eco-makeover for their school from Perth Solar City. We have provided each school with a real-time energy monitoring system to help them find energy savings and to run the competition.
We have loaded historical data on each schools energy use into Greensense View to calculate a baseline. Each week we award points to the schools based on their energy reduction against their baseline. This way smaller schools like Weld Square Primary School can compete with bigger schools like Ballajura Community College.
The competition will extend over the up coming school holidays, so there is a big incentive for schools to understand and manage their energy use when the school is unoccupied. One of the top tips we gave schools was to develop ‘switch off’ plans for their class rooms and common areas. These apply from lunch breaks, to after school, and from weekends to school holidays.
Every school dashboard can be viewed from the Bring It Down page on the Perth Solar City web site, or you can click on the schools below to see how they are going:
Upper Swan Primary School
Ballajura Community College
Woodbridge Primary School
Mundaring Christian College
Hillside Christian College
Swan View Senior High School
Weld Square Primary School
We’ll be tracking the competition and providing advice to the schools throughout the competition and you can follow the action on our Twitter stream: @GreensenseView.
The Australian Institute of Management has recognised the need to train organisations in the practices of sustainability. Starting in 2011 they will be running two courses: The two day Foundations of Sustainability and three day Strategic Sustainability for Today’s Organisations.
With the experience Greensense has in sustainability education, combined with countless examples of assisting our customers develop sustainable practices, we have been been engaged by AIM to produce the content for these courses.
We are covering everything from energy efficiency, climate change, biodiversity, water and waste management to how the government is responding and what you can do in the context of your organisation. Filled with many real life examples — we are looking forward to continuing to equip West Australian organisations to respond the challenges and opportunities of a resource-contrained economy.
The Greensense View® product suite is now registered under the National Solar for Schools scheme and will be installed in 51 schools across WA this financial year in partnership with a local solar provider.
Greensense View® will be used to monitor the green power generated by the solar installation at the school compared to the “black” power consumed from the grid as part of an education and awareness program delivered as part of the NSSP scheme.
Greensense View® is already being used by a number of other educational institutes include Curtin University, West Coast Institute of Training, Polytechnic West and the Industrial Training Institute arm of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
For more information on how Greensense View® can help your organisation understand and reduce energy and water use contact us.
