Mayo students invited to compete for EirGrid climate award
Secondary school students across Mayo are being encouraged to enter a STEM focused competition with the chance of winning the EirGrid Delivering a Cleaner Energy Future Award.
With students Elizabeth Byrne and Orlaith Heaney of Mount St. Michael Secondary School, Claremorris, scooping the award earlier this year thanks to their innovative project, EirGrid and SciFest are urging Mayo students to get creative and take part this academic year.
Elizabeth and Orlaith took home the award for their project ‘The Goodness Guide’, which they presented at a SciFest Fair at Teen Turn in Dublin earlier this year.
EirGrid, the operator and developer of Ireland’s electricity grid, has partnered with SciFest to create the climate and energy focused award.
SciFest@School is a second-level programme promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) education by providing a forum for students to present and display their scientific investigations.
Speaking about EirGrid’s involvement in the programme, head of strategy and sustainability with EirGrid, Errol Close, said: “Leading on sustainability and decarbonisation is central to our strategy at EirGrid. Achieving this requires the development of innovative solutions to enable electricity to play a key role in decarbonising our daily lives. That is why EirGrid is proud to partner with SciFest on creating this award, to give secondary school students a chance to showcase their ambitious, solution-driven ideas to addressing climate change.”
He added: “EirGrid is working to securely transition Ireland’s power system to one that is built around low-carbon renewable energy to create a better future for all. Achieving this will require the development of skills and critical thinking, and that critical thinking is already being adopted by young people.”
Welcoming the renewed partnership, the CEO of SciFest, Sheila Porter, commented: “The EirGrid Climate and Delivering a Cleaner Energy Future Award serves to raise awareness of the need for climate action in our young people and will encourage them to become ambassadors for change regarding the most important issue facing the world today. We are grateful to EirGrid for their continued support and look forward to working with them again in the new academic year.”
For further information about EirGrid’s role in delivering a cleaner energy future, visit eirgrid.ie, or to find out more about SciFest Fairs, visit scifest.ie.