Last month, Mr Ian Williams, Queenswood’s Bursar, spoke to the Academic Scholars about the process of installing solar panels on the roof of Queenswood Hall, an initiative that will supply around 8–9% of the school’s annual energy needs.

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IZZY P, YEAR 8 ACADEMIC SCHOLAR

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With emissions and clean energy becoming such a global issue, it is important we understand what we can do to help. Queenswood has installed solar panels to try and reduce our carbon footprint, and that’s what the Academic Scholars’ seminar was on. It was very interesting to go into greater depth on solar panels, not just looking at the moral and environmental side of purchasing them, but also their economic viability, such as how much they cost, where you can put them, whether you’ll get planning permission and so on.

It showed me that solar panels are a lot more complicated (and expensive) than I first thought. It also brought into sharp perspective how much the energy bill really is to run a large school such as Q. This seminar demonstrated that there are many ways to generate clean energy, but for Q, solar panels are the way to go.