Schools which won prizes in the secondary school competition for Energy Week 2012 were presented with their prizes at a ceremony on Friday 22 March 2013.
Under the theme “Sustainable Energy: Powering a Green Economy” three secondary schools, namely St. Joseph’s Convent St. George’s (SJC), Presentation Brothers’ College (PBC) and Anglican High School (AHS), took up the challenge put out by the Energy Unit to create and build a Water Harvesting prototype, as part of the activities for Energy Week, which ran from 11–16 November 2012.
Students from each school, with the assistance of their teachers, prepared project concepts, developed, costed and built a demonstration model of their water harvesting system, which was exhibited as part of the Kill-A-Watt Day exhibition held at the Ministry of Finance on 16 November 2012.
The projects were judged, and at the end of the day PBC emerged winners, with SJC and AHS coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively. The presentations were made by Ms. Maureen Baptiste, Deputy Permanent Secretary (Administration) in the Ministry of Finance and Energy, and Ms. Prudence Greenidge, Corporate Communications Manager of GRENLEC. Also present at the ceremony was Ms. Patricia Felix, Deputy Chief Education Officer with responsibility for schools.
The prizes presented were sponsored by GRENLEC, while the trophies were sponsored as part of the CARICOM initiative.
In terms of the projects, PBC demonstrated a rainwater harvesting and water purification system (using photovoltaics) to provide the school (PBC) with potable water. The SJC demonstrated “A self-sustained farm”. Using Vendomme as an example, they showed how the Vendome North agricultural lands can use an irrigation system powered by hydroelectricity, which is achieved through a rainwater harvesting system. The AHS demonstrated a rainwater harvesting system designed for bathroom facility use and for irrigation in school’s agricultural science SBA projects.
Energy Week is now an established annual event based on a mandate from CARICOM Energy Ministers in 2011 to provide a platform for increased awareness about energy matters, given the critical importance of energy to economic development.
