The nonprofit program REpowering Schools is designed to educate students and teachers about renewable energy. By coordinating with the renewable energy industry and national state government projects, it also hopes to inspire students to explore future careers in sustainable energy. The program, created in 2017, works to engage and train a diverse and plentiful renewable energy workforce for the future.
Photo Courtesy REpowering Schools
REpowering Schools grew in response to the very successful Wind for Schools Project (WfS), which was created in 2006 by the United States Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to educate university students and staff around the country about wind energy. Nearly 250 schools in 12 states have participated in the WfS program.
“We work with a lot of states, and we have a great network of people who do amazing work on the ground bringing renewable education projects to students,” Remy Pangle, REpowering Schools executive director, said in a Pattern Energy article.
Photo Courtesy REpowering Schools
The REpowering Schools program was created to help states already involved in the WfS project. In the latter, students learned more about wind power through projects that included building small working wind turbines in their schools. The program also aims to help WfS expand its reach to other states and renewables.
The REpowering program has partnered with various solar nonprofits, including Power to Share, where students learn how to build solar-powered suitcases that can be used to charge everything from light bulbs to cell phones.
Those suitcases are sent to refugee camp schools in Africa.
“It’s a fantastic demonstration on the application of solar power,” Pangle said to Pattern Energy. “It’s a fun project, and for a little extra, they can be deployed. Students add artwork to the suitcase, write letters to the kids, and then it’s sent to somewhere that needs it, like Kenya or Uganda.”
The nonprofit’s renewable education projects are geared toward students from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade, with college projects offered as well. The overall goal is to ensure students of all ages know about renewable energy, how it works, and how they can work in the field.
Photo Courtesy REpowering Schools
“Our goal is to connect educators and students with the renewable energy industry to help promote workforce development and to make sure that we’re all having these conversations with each other to make sure that our technology and renewable energy deployment goals can be met,” Pangle added.
REpowering Schools also offers grants and funds for students interested in pursuing a clean energy education, whether in the STEM fields or in areas like law, finance, or communication that have numerous clean energy applications.
Overall, REpowering Schools helps students bridge the gap between sustainable energy educational opportunities and technology leaders. By doing this, students get a complete picture of the country’s clean energy future and how they can make an educated decision to be a part of it.
