Greening the "White House"
CHALLENGE
St Peter's Anglican Primary School in Sydney's south-western suburbs has long been known for its historic White House, but recent environmental initiatives are creating a new, green identity for the school.
The school, recognisable by its heritage-listed, 1887-built "White House" now restored and used as a performing arts centre, is becoming less identified for its white landmark and more for its green commitment.
St Peter's Anglican Primary School is a co-education school catering for some 550 students from pre-Kindergarten to Year 6. Its emphasis includes providing opportunities for children to think scientifically and to stimulate learning generally, so installing an energy efficiency system with in-built education outcomes is seen as a natural extension of the school's philosophy.
SOLUTION
St Peter's was able to fully fund the $50,000 energy efficiency project under the National Solar Schools Program. The system involved the installation of 30 durable solar panels on the steel roof of a recently built classroom building, over just one weekend.
Given the school's emphasis on making learning fun through a ‘hands on' approach, Solgen Energy's web-enabled monitoring device allows the children to experience the generation of solar energy as an important part of the solution.
Furthermore, the school hopes to increase its solar energy production capacity with plans to install more solar panels on the future construction of a new multi-purpose hall.
BENEFITS
The Solgen Energy solar system, with its web-enabled energy monitoring device, provides the school with an excellent teaching resource, and has the potential to return power to the grid and reduce the school's carbon footprint.
Furthermore, the installation has allowed the school to benefit from:
- the annual generation of approximately 8 Megawatt hours of electricity
- the annual prevention of about 7.5 tonnes of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere; the equivalent of removing a car from the road for more than one year
- raising awareness of renewable energy in the community
TESTIMONIAL
"Solgen Energy did everything they said they would, promptly and within a schedule. The experience was positive, so much so that we hope to be able to employ Solgen Energy again."
Robbert Alderden, Deputy Headmaster, St Peter's Anglican Primary School.
