At Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico-Ponce Campus, a group of youth leaders are developing new strategies to encourage the entire student community to demand a change for a 100% clean energy powered campus. This idea comes from running Seize the Grid campaign, a movement that is guided to make energy transitions to stop depending on fossil fuels. The actual status of PUCPR-Ponce Campus campaign is in to creating awareness to the entire community by clean energy education. Their vision is to create a major movement on Puerto Rico by expanding to other institutions in the island.
On February 23, 2016, STG-PUCPR launched an educational conference in celebration of the ‘Solar Education Week’ (Feb. 22-26). During the follow week, events were celebrated simultaneously, by other groups, institutions, identities and campaigns all nationwide. The topic of the conference at PUCPR was driven to inform how solar panels actually work and how energy can transform to power our buildings and homes. The speakers were, Physics Professor César E. Echevarría-Narváez and Yan Carlo Oquendo Architect and EcoSmart Living CEO. Both were supportive of our alternative solution of having the sun as the primary source of energy. Prof. Echevarría talked about how solar panels actually work by dynamic and demonstrative examples using Physics and Environmental Science. On the other hand, Arq. Oquendo gave a broad speech of having a sustainable building design to make a transition to clean energy and how, by this redesign, we can take a step further into an energy transition. All 30 participants, were pleased to have their questions answered by both speakers of this conference, and they have learned a deeper understanding about the energy that we receive from the sun and how we can benefit from it we start making the transition to renewables now.
This conference was a great start for the ‘Solar Education Week’ and let people get more interested in Seize the Grid as the solution to change PUCPR-Ponce Campus into renewable energy for good. STG-PUCPR, will continue offering the entire Spring Semester 2016 conferences, workshops and information to continue with the campaign objective to educate the student community and let others know how youth leadership is raising their voice for a clean energy future. Look for us at our STG-PUCPR social media pages (Facebook and Twitter) and support our vision and mission. We encourage everyone to support the Seize the Grid Campaign by spreading the news and signing our petition for a 100% clean energy transition at www.addup.org/campaigns/seize-the-grid-at-pontificia-universidad-catolica-de-puerto-rico and nationwide at www.addup.org/campaigns/seize-the-grid-for-100-clean-energy-by-2030. Let’s work together and make changes for our future and let’s stop depending on fossil fuels for good.
