Solar Cell Facility at Nørre G

The Solar Cell Facility installed at the school in March 2022, is very consistent with the Nørre Gymnasium’s status as a UNESCO school. The facility is part of a project on green entrepreneurship concerning – among other things – building action competence through the use of sun cell data in teaching, and Nørre G has been allotted resources from the Ministry of Children and Education’s “2021 Green entrepreneurship funds for youth education programmes”.

Student involvement in the sustainability agenda
In general, with this project Nørre G wishes to strengthen the student involvement within the sustainability agenda through – among other ways – the work in the school’s committee for UNESCO, Sustainable Development Goals, and the environment. Our long-term goal is the hope that the students will see a connection between their everyday work with the solar cells at the school and the commercial and creative possibilities integrated in the green transition. In support of this, teachers from Nørre G have been on further training in sustainable teaching. Furthermore, working with calculations on actual data from the school’s own solar cell facility should increase the students’ motivation.

Solceller_NoerreG_2022

Data from the solar cell facility can be monitored online

Solar cells and green entrepreneurship as a class project
Initially, the solar cell facility will be the focal point for two classes during the school year 2022-23. The students will go through an entrepreneurship course focused on renewable energy where – among other things – they will work with green business ideas. The classes will gain cross-curricular insight into the economy, technique, architecture, societal impact, and technological comprehension of the solar cells as well as their role in the green transition.

The project will reach its peak in the spring of 2023 in a study trip to Berlin for both classes. Here they will visit Aleo Solar, the company which has produced and supplied the school’s solar cell panels. During their study trip, the students will also present their green business ideas before an assessment committee in a kind of “Dragons’ Den”. In addition to the visit at Aleo Solar, the students will meet green start-ups and visit energy politicians in the German Parliament (Bundestag), and also go to see the construction site of the Tesla Gigafactory. When the students return from their study trip, they will present their results to all the school’s other students.

Nørre G's solar cells on the radio
On 7 September 2022, the Danish radio programme ”P1 Orientering” featured Nørre G’s solar cells including an interview with our student Mila Filstrup Ilievski and Principal Mette Vedel. Hear the programme here.

Solceller_NoerreG_2022

The first phase of the interview on the roof among the solar cells

Watch the video about the establishing and use of Nørre’s solar cell facility (in Danish with English subtitles). The video was produced in collaboration with project manager Kirsten Hasberg and her team.

About the facility
The facility is made up by 402 Aleo Solar powerful project modules, which are produced in Prenzlau just outside Berlin. The cost is around DKK 1.2 million with an effect of 133 kilowatt-peak (kWp). According to calculations, Nørre G’s solar cell facility will produce112,000 kWh per year which will cover a 5^th of the school’s electricity consumption resulting in yearly electricity cost savings of DKK 231,800. The payback time is estimated at five years but will probably be shorter due to increasing electricity prices.

Solceller_NoerreG_2022