The event included 150 high school students from various Atlantis schools including Atlantis School of Skills, Atlantis Secondary High School, Saxonsea High School, Robinvale Secondary High School and Proteus Secondary High School. Students spent the afternoon meeting and networking with renewable energy professionals, and learning from various interactive stations about the benefits of choosing a career path in renewable energy.
Among the exhibits at the event was Durban University of Technology’s Energy Drive Bus. A custom-designed bus that serves as an experiential climate change and renewable energy mobile education station. It’s equipped with ten solar photovoltaic panels, a 600-watt wind turbine, a biodigester, a solar hot water display unit and a battery bank.
"With the recent progress in establishing Atlantis as a green technology innovation and manufacturing hub, now is the perfect time to engage our youth in that goal," said Patricia de Lille, executive mayor, City of Cape Town. "The young people participating in the Atlantis Career Expo and Renewable Energy Challenge are the future leaders who will drive the green economy forward. I commend the partners in this project for realising this and for stepping up to empower our young people. I put my faith in our youth and I encourage them to grab this opportunity and make the most of it so that they can take the green economy to even greater heights."
During the event, GreenCape and SAWEA also held an award ceremony to announce the winners of the Atlantis Renewable Energy Challenge. The competition, now in its second year, challenged students grades nine and 11 to tackle various hands-on renewable energy related projects such as building wind turbines from recycled materials and creating educational posters and videos.
Student teams participating in the challenge previously presented their projects to a panel of adjudicators from the renewable energy sector, who ultimately selected the winning projects. Amongst other prizes, winning teams were awarded a visit to the Windaba conference and exhibition.
“It’s critical to educate young people about the benefits and opportunities within the renewable energy industry,” said Jana Jordaan, GreenCape analyst. “We’re not only introducing students to a rewarding, future-proof career path, we’re also inspiring the next generation that will lead South Africa towards a sustainable, low-carbon future.”
The Career Expo is part of broader efforts for Atlantis, a previously disadvantaged community, to tap into the economic and development benefits of the green economy. With combined efforts from the Department of Trade and Industry (dti), Western Cape Government, City of Cape Town and GreenCape, Atlantis was recently earmarked to be designated as a Green Technology Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Once the SEZ is designated, incentives will be offered to green technology companies from around the world to invest and establish manufacturing plants in Atlantis.
