Have yourself a solar powered Christmas ....
St Mawes County Primary School on the Roseland Peninsula is leading the way in celebrating Christmas in a climate friendly way by using solar power to run their Christmas lights.
Why they are doing things to help the climate....
St Mawes CP School is an Eco-School and their philosophy is to provide a stimulating place in which to learn whilst enabling pupils to become good environmental citizens by taking responsibility for the future of their own environment. In terms of the climate, they feel it is important to lead by example in terms of their own carbon emissions, as their pupils will be the teenagers and adults that grow up alongside the increasing impacts of climate change.
Pupil involvement is a key part of the approach taken at St Mawes. Pupils sit on an Eco Committee that make decisions about the whole school’s environment. This leads to genuine ownership by the pupils and increases their sense of responsibility for the environment and local area. An important part of the process is to enable pupils to take the lessons they have learned into their everyday lives and on to their future schools. As the Eco Committee contains pupils from all years, the older children are also able to educate the younger pupils about environmental responsibility.
Pupils on the Eco Committee said they are concerned about the future of the climate if people don’t start taking action to stop climate change, they wonder how things may be when they become adults, and have children of their own.
What they are doing....
As an active part of the local community, the school wanted to support the annual Christmas lights in St Mawes, but the children felt they should do this in a way that would not damage their environment. Christmas lights are a central part of most people’s festive celebrations, but lights, big or small, require electricity to run. If this electricity has come from a power station that is burning coal, oil or gas there are associated carbon emissions that add to the problem of climate change.
The solution at St Mawes was to use solar power to provide the electricity they needed. The school fund-raised for the equipment and the pupils designed the image for the display, which can be changed every year. It uses two photovoltaic panels (PV) that convert daylight into electricity, this electricity is stored in batteries until it is needed. By using solar power the display does not create any emissions and therefore has no impact on the climate. Cleverly, the whole system has been designed to be portable, so when the school closes the whole display is taken into the town for everyone to enjoy.
As well as the climate friendly Christmas lights, the school heats its water with solar powered water heaters and saves energy by switching off unneeded lights and equipment, they also save energy on their heating by keeping doors and windows shut. The school also recycles their own waste and provides recycling facilities for the local community.
Why it’s important…..
It is not practical for everyone to run their Christmas lights from solar power yet, but it’s worth thinking about how long you leave your own lights on for. The Energy Saving Trust say that based on the 90% of households that leave a normal string of Christmas tree lights on for 24 hours a day over the 12 days of Christmas could cost up to £14 million in electricity bills and create 77,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide (enough to fill 15,500 hot air balloons).
For those with more extravagant outdoor Christmas displays, this could add an extra £75 to electricity bills over Christmas, creating an extra 444Kg of carbon dioxide per household.
Christmas is a time to relax and enjoy yourself, but think about switching those lights off when you’re not there to enjoy them. Little actions collectively have a huge impact in terms of reducing climate change and it will save you money!
Making electricity from the sun to run appliances and lighting is easy in the UK. PV only requires daylight, not direct sunlight, to generate electricity and its use in Cornwall and the UK is becoming increasingly common. Lots of different designs are available; you can even get PV slates that look like normal roofing slates. Grants towards the cost of PV systems are available from the Government’s low carbon buildings programme, for householders, community organisations, schools, the public and not for profit sector and private businesses.
Further information....
Find out more about the St Mawes school from their website
The school was helped with this project by Cornish charity, Community Energy Plus
More information on solar photovoltaic's and solar hot water panels are available from the Cornwall Sustainable Energy Partnership website. Information on these and other technologies with links to accredited installers is available from the Energy Saving Trust
For information on grants towards solar panels and other renewable energy technologies visit the Low Carbon Buildings Programme
For more information on visit the Eco Schools website
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St Mawes School
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Community Energy Plus
Find out more about how this organisation is helping reduce climate change in Cornwall
Cornwall Sustainable Energy Partnership
Find out more about CSEPs support for energy projects in Cornwall
EST
Find out more about generating your own energy
Grants for renewable energy
See how the government can help fund renewables in your building
Eco Schools
See how your school can become more environmentally sustainable
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