Ener-G makes energy entrepreneurs of school pupils in Manchester
Teenagers from 11 schools across Greater Manchester took control of green-energy businesses and powered up their creative and commercial skills in the Ener-G ‘Make it enterprising’ schools challenge. Teams became mini-manufacturing businesses for a day. Their challenge was to design, manufacture and install eco-friendly power generation and efficiency solutions for customers varying from supermarkets and hospitals to gyms and factories. They then pitched their ideas to a panel of senior-manager ‘dragons’ from Ener-G.
The 13- and 14-year olds were challenged to build imaginative 3D floor plans of an eco-friendly power system for their chosen building. After selecting their job roles (including managing director, operations, finance, logistics, sales and marketing managers) they costed out their ideas, developed energy-performance indicator systems and created sales and marketing plants for presentation to the Ener-G ‘dragons’.
The winning team from Sale Grammar School built a school with solar panels, motion sensors for lights, ground-source heat pumps and recycled rainwater. A traffic-light system in every classroom warned pupils when too much energy was being consumed and reminded them to switch power off when not in use.
