Students experiment with wind turbines to understand 'clean energy future'

As part of a new Regional Industry Education Partnerships (RIEP) program which connects schools and employers, the skills workshop immersed the year 10, 11 and 12 pupils into clean energy generation and storage.

On Wednesday, July 3, students experimented with a wind turbine simulator, producing different flow rates and examining characteristics,

"It was all about seeing how different blade designs and angles can generate different voltages," year 10 student Raya Talty said.

Conducting more than 50 experiments in the five-day masterclass, students had hands-on exposure using leXsolar-NewEnergy Kits, specifically adapted for school-based learning and experiments.

TAFE NSW teacher Tim de Grauw led the workshop, covering everything from electrical fundamentals to solar, onshore and offshore wind, hydro, battery storage and green hydrogen

"It's effectively all practicals. They're grabbing their maths and physics that they're learning and applying that to the different renewable energy technologies," he said.

"We also have a proper discussion of how the small scale translates to the large scale projects that are happening across the entire renewable energy sector in in New South Wales."

Across the week ambassadors from across industry including AGL, Ark Energy, Orica, Lightsource BP, Idemitsu and Oceanex visited the students to provide an in-depth overview of their project, scope of works and number and types of jobs.

The year 10 students will have an opportunity to expand on these industry connections next year through excursions and work-experience.

Ms Talty said speaking with industry representatives from AGL and Ark Energy was a highlight and an insight.

"It was really interesting to hear about some of the projects they're working on and how they got to be working in that field," she said.

While she shares an interest with her father in the energy sector, Ms Talty said she hadn't considered a career in renewables until the workshop.

I've always been interested in it. It's something that my father was very passionate about and thus I picked up that interest, but after this course I'll probably look more into it as a career path," she said.

She said it was important as a young person living in the Hunter to understand how renewables work.

"I think it's very important for this generation to take a huge interest in this because inevitably we'll be inheriting it in just a few years, so we need to know what's going on," she said.

"We need to understand so we can sort of correct some of the past mistakes and strive for a better future."

With $32 billion earmarked in investment to meet 2030 targets there will be approximately 6,300 construction and 2,800 ongoing jobs forecasted for the Hunter region by the time these students are ready to transition into employment.