Six senior high schools (SHSs) from across the country are set to compete in the grand finale of the 6th Energy Commission Renewable Energy Challenge.
Ahead of the finals, zonal competitions for the southern and northern sectors were held at the auditorium of the College of Engineering of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to select the six schools to contest in the finals.
The zonal competitions brought together winning schools from the regional contests in the 16 regions to compete for a place in the finals scheduled in October 2025.
The competition provided students from the participating schools an opportunity to showcase innovative projects that addressed challenges in food security, waste management, and healthcare delivery through renewable energy solutions.
Outcome
Out of eight schools that contested in the southern zone competition, Presbyterian Boys SHS (PRESEC), Legon, Adidome SHS and Ahantaman Girls’ SHS emerged as the three top finalists.
Similarly, at the end of the northern zone competition, Dabopka Technical Institute, Ola Girls SHS and Damongo SHS sailed through out of the seven SHS that took part in the competition.
The annual competition, organised by the Energy Commission with support from some partners, is on the theme: “Sustainable energy for a healthier future”.
Key objective
Addressing the event, the acting Executive Secretary, Energy Commission, Eunice Kwei Britwum, said a key objective of the commission was to ensure that the projects that were developed as part of the competition go beyond the prototype stage to reach commercialisation.
To support this, she stated that the commission had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to further develop the winning projects to the commercialisation stage.
“I am pleased to inform you that through this collaboration, the patent documentation for a solar dehydrator, one of the projects from the previous year’s competition, has been prepared and is currently under review by the intellectual property division of CSIR,” she said.
Approval
Mrs Britwum indicated that once approval was received, the documentation would be submitted to the World Intellectual Property Organisation for certification, stressing, “Our goal is to complete the patenting process as soon as possible so that we can engage local and international investors to support large-scale production.
“We are committed to promoting all commercially viable projects from the competition and not just those that make it to the finals,” she said and, therefore, called on all stakeholders to come on board towards achieving this laudable objective.
Rationale
Touching on the importance of the competition, she stated that since the country’s education system made it difficult for students to apply theories learnt to solve real-world problems, explaining that the competition was intended to bridge the gap by empowering students to turn their knowledge into solutions to benefit the nation.
Sustainability
A Senior Admissions Officer, Ashesi University, a sponsor of the competition, Kissinger Dzani, said the projects developed by the students were a reminder that sustainability was not a luxury but a necessity.
“We must go beyond the innovations and move towards the implementation of the project. As a nation, we must come up with policies towards an equitable and sustainable renewable energy use,” he said.
In a remark, the Ashanti Regional Director, Ghana TVET Service, Richard Addo-Gyamfi, said due to challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, and energy security Ghana faced, it was imperative that the right investments were made in finding solutions to the nation’s energy challenges.
Writer’s email: gilbert.agbey@graphic.com.gh
