Sustainable Energy Days: practical workshops on renewable energy for primary school students: the TIGON project

The Centre for the Development of Renewable Energy (CEDER-CIEMAT) is a public research body focused on the use of biomass energy, the study of wind energy in small wind turbines, and the search for practical solutions for the integration of renewable generation sources and storage systems in smart microgrids.

Among all the European projects in progress in our centre, we consider especially interesting for primary school students the TIGON project in the area of smart microgrids.

TIGON is all about renewable energy and efficient power systems for a sustainable future. Clean local energy and modern electrical equipment run on Direct Current (DC). Most electricity grid infrastructure remains centralised and uses Alternating Current (AC). Conversion from DC to AC and back to DC leads to power losses, which add to the losses due to long-distance electricity transmission. The challenge of the TIGON project is to integrate the DC grid into the main electricity network while ensuring resiliency and cost-effectiveness.

At CEDER-CIEMAT we have an Energiteca, a fun but scientific space where we can carry out interactive activities, using different prototypes related to renewable energies. The versatility of the TIGON project, which integrates different renewable generation sources, gives us the opportunity to bring the world of experimentation closer to primary school children, who generally have greater difficulties in accessing scientific activities.

In the Energiteca, we can find a wind tunnel to carry out experiments with wind energy, a hybrid wind-photovoltaic trainer, different solar panels, instruments related to solar and wind energy, and sections of wind turbines, among other scientific equipment. We want the kids to interact with them, so that they are not mere spectators, but actors.

After having experimented in the Energiteca, we will play an escape room of Renewable Energies, which includes solving simple challenges to find the secret codes.