Solar panels for Düsseldorf schools

Target group

Students from 6 to 18 years, teachers, municipalities

Learning aims

A solar panel on the school roof produces environmentally friendly electricity and after a few years it yields economic profits. It can be an inducement for pupils and teachers to deal with the ecological, economic and technical aspects of renewable energies.

However setting up a solar panel presents a challenge for many schools, because high investment costs must be secured and various organisational problems must be solved.

Short description

The federal state capital Düsseldorf has been supporting its schools for many years with environmental projects and training for sustainable development. Here some interesting examples have arisen of how schools can gain a solar panel.

One way can be that the school finds a partner, which ‘donates’ a solar panel and preferably knows what must be taken into account during planning, installation and operation. In this sense the Geschwister-Scholl grammar school Düsseldorf was able to set up a solar panel in 1997 with the help of the Düsseldorf public utilities.

The Humboldt grammar school is another example: in the scope of communal climate protection, the state capital Düsseldorf offered citizens the use of the roofs of particular public buildings to set up solar panels. Subsequently the parents of the school founded the Humboldt Solar GbR, they raised the necessary money – and in 2008 the first citizens’ solar panel appeared on the school roof.

Reflection

A solar panel on the school roof is a good sign for the socially necessary energy turnaround. A whole range of schools in Germany set up a solar panel in the past few years with this intention, and often these schools also carried out accompanying teaching projects. However these panels are quite small and they give out e.g. 1KW with maximum solar radiation – compared to the electricity usage of a school that is not very much.

Larger panels produce more energy; the solar panel on the Humboldt grammar school gives out up to 30 kW. Such panels are significantly more expensive and can hardly be financed by donations anymore. According to the model of the citizens’ solar panel the roof space and the capital can be ’raised’. This model is worth a further expansion, not just in Germany.

More information

(Sorry: only in German language):

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