PCJ challenges students to think beyond energy conservation

Sheldon Williams, Staff Reporter

Energy-saving creativity and diversity by students from participating schools in the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) 2013/2014 science competition of the Schools' Energy Programme was put on display in the company's auditorium for adjudication last Friday.

Students were tasked with designing and building a small-scale model of a house or a small office to represent the theme of low-energy building. Projects had to demonstrate comfortable temperatures without the use of conventional conditioning.

Shane Silvera, project engineer for renewable electricity (hydro-power) at the PCJ, served as one of the judges and lauded the efforts of the students.

"There were some very good projects and some average. You could see that the students made some effort in doing research and put some effort in making the models themselves, and some had some very innovative ideas, out-of-the-box thinking," Silvera said.

He pointed to the use of a water fountain in one of the projects as one of the innovative ideas.

"You have one that used a distilled fountain inside the office and a pool on top to help cool it. So it's fairly innovative when you think of using water to help reduce the heat being absorbed by the building and to cool the atmosphere."

Information and corporate affairs manager at the PCJ, Camille Taylor, explained that the objective of the competition is to stimulate ideas among students that could reduce dependence on electricity.

"What we are trying to do is to go beyond 'turn off the lights, turn down, switch off' to them really looking at the real energy issues - energy supply and energy cost. We are trying to get them to inculcate habits and lifestyles that work with energy efficiency and energy conservation," she said.

Winners will be announced in June at the official awards ceremony.

"All of our winners in every category will get cash awards. Last year, we gave out over a million dollars in cash and prizes, and this year, we aim to top that," Taylor revealed.