Project Detail

Integration of Renewable Energy by Solar Installation at Every Child Counts School

Every Child Counts (ECC) is a special needs school located in Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas. The school?s mission is to maximize each challenged child?s ability to become productive, successful, and independent. Programs and curricula are tailored to the individual needs of each student and guide them towards being productive members of society. In 2012, ECC began including environmental programming in the form of an eco-class as partial requirements for Eco-School Green Flag certification, which was received in 2014 . ECC believes that it is important to share knowledge and appreciation of our environment with students so that they learn to become caretakers of the earth. In addition to our eco-programming, ECC is looking for other ways for the school to become more sustainable.

ECC currently relies on the local power grid of Abaco, which burns diesel, a non-renewable energy source, resulting in greenhouse gas emissions being released. Approximately 22 pounds of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere per gallon of diesel burned. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas which has been proven to contribute to climate change and global warming. At its peak consumption last year, ECC used 1867 kWh of electricity (BEC, June 2017).

The school?s proposed method to begin addressing this problem is the installation of two solar arrays, which will cover electrical requirements of two of the school?s five buildings. This includes ECC?s existing vocational training workshop, Starfish Enterprises, and the Transitional Living Centre, which is set to be enclosed by July 2018. The Starfish Enterprises Sheltered Workshop is a vocational centre where students who have graduated from Every Child Counts School are employed and can gain skills for employment in the broader community. The Transitional Living Centre will accommodate older students and graduates, so they can learn to live independently, while receiving needed support from the school.

By supporting this project, GEF UNDP SGP will enable the school to begin its transition from fossil fuel-powered electricity to clean, solar-powered energy. The implementation of this project will directly impact the school?s staff, students with disabilities, caregivers of the students, and the broader ECC community, along with the environment in general. Students and community members will be taught about the new solar energy system, so that they can further share information about sustainable energy sources with guests, and other students and community members, and hopefully encourage others to convert to clean energy.

This is a micro-project that will bring awareness to global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, and will promote climate change mitigation. It will yield many co-benefits for the school, including improving living conditions. This will enable workers with disabilities at the school to work full weeks through the hot summer and to generate a greater income for both the school and the trainees in the workshop. This project will also provide the ECC staff, students, graduates, and community at large with an education on the effects of climate change and climate change mitigation strategies.

This education will be incorporated into the school?s existing eco-plan and eco-club. Students here are already trained to monitor electricity usage and to ensure that all reasonable conservation measures are taken. With the implementation of the solar panel technology, this training can be expanded to include monitoring electricity generation and use, and finding patterns. Not only will this allow the school to use energy more thoughtfully, but it will allow the students to further develop skills and interest in environmental sustainability, which is a growing industry.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

RCANB Every Child Counts School

Country:

Bahamas

Area Of Work:

Climate Change Mitigation

Operational Phase:

OP6 -Y4 (Jul 18 - Jun 19)

Grant Amount:

US$ 50,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 176,000.00

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 50,480.00

Project Number:

BHA/SGP/OP6/CORE/CC/2018/51

Start Date:

9/2018

End Date:

8/2019

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Gender Focus

All of our students both male and female need to become aware of their roles in protecting the natural environment of the Bahamas. Seeing solar energy put into use would be a part of this development. All of our trainees need to also have as much opportunity to learn independence and vocational skills as possible ? as often as possible so being able to extend the time that they have to do this would be extremely helpful and enabled by addressing the level of heat in the summer in these buildings.

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

By documenting the project from start to finish and exposing all of our students and supporters to this chronicle in Eco class and other classes and in our social media as explained above along with the rest of our Green School efforts.

Capacity - Building Component

Everything that is done at ECC is done in an effort to increase the capacity of our students to become more knowledgeable and concerned global citizens. Learning about solar energy and seeing how it could be put to work would be a part of this shaping of concern about our world. Our students as we have said all participate in E classes and projects that have earned us the status of a Green School. We believe children learn from what they experience and participate in and this would be a major learning experience for them in conservation of resources.

Policy Impact

School policies would be impacted by the knowledge of whether it would be feasible for our energy consumption to be supplemented through the increased use of solar energy. ECC is a green school and is committed to increasing the knowledge of our students and parents and supporters about conservation and ecology. We have a Eco class which every student in the school rotates through during the year working on various projects involved in energy and conservation and daily vocational and agriculture classes that focus on conservation skills and ecology. We would look to other ways to transition to other uses of solar energy if this project is successful.

Notable Community Participation

The workshop area trains our sheltered workshop clients and secondary students in pre-vocational and employment skills and allows them to produce items for sale to support the whole school. They will be able to remain productive and healthy in the heat and extend their skills and their productivity. Meanwhile, they will also be learning about solar energy and energy conservation to achieve this goal. As appropriate, one of our older students will also shadow the solar technician to help facilitate future maintenance.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

The young persons with disabilities will be able to add to their productivity in making soap and packaging utensils which are sold to the community and add to the income of the school to keep it functioning. If the project is successful, we would hope to look towards implementing other transitions to solar in other buildings.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

We produce a newsletter which reaches almost 1000 people 4 times per year. Our Eco projects (including this possible one) are a major part of the information disseminated and hopefully add to the awareness of this population. This knowledge also needs to be extended to parents, volunteers and supporters ? participating in and learning about solar energy is a major part of that education especially in a country like the Bahamas. All of the social media modes that we employ ? newsletters, website and Facebook - would be means of awareness of these efforts and will reach many persons.

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