Industry leaders to meet to discuss the state of renewable energy education in light of equity, climate solutions and career development
Leaders in clean energy education– the KidWind Project, REpowering Schools, and CE – Clean Energy. Bright Futures – are hosting the first virtual national Renewable Energy Education Summit today, February 4, 2021, from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm ET. During the summit, educators, researchers, and practitioners from around the world will come together to discuss the current and future state of clean energy education in a collaborative day-long virtual dialogue.
“This summit provides a reflective opportunity for the clean energy education community to come together, set some clear priorities, and to consider whether the tools, voices, and resources in our community are enough to achieve our goals.” said Michael Arquin, founder of KidWind.
The summit will connect more than 90 teachers, researchers, and industry professionals and survey existing clean energy educational research and programs. Participants will explore the impacts of renewable energy education, identify significant gaps and research questions, and establish long-term working groups to address key issues identified during the summit. Participants will be responding to a call to action to help broaden public awareness and include linkages to energy justice, equity and inclusion in clean energy education, and increased access to clean energy career pathways.
Chaun MacQueen, senior director of CE – Clean Energy. Bright Futures, highlighted, “there are many opportunities to meet multiple goals around equity and justice, climate solutions, and preparing students for future careers, but we have a lot of work ahead of us to determine a more inclusive path forward. This summit is just one small step forward of many more to come.”
During working group meetings, participants will discuss what students are learning about energy and renewables, what high-quality resources currently exist to support renewable energy education, and how current educational programs can advance the need for future clean energy talent and informed participants in the growing clean energy economy.
“This summit is an opportunity to bring together practitioners and researchers of renewable energy education to facilitate important discussions about the state of education and identify gaps and solutions to move forward,” said Remy Pangle, executive director of REpowering Schools. “I am excited to be part of this event and look forward to the ongoing work and action that will come out of it.”
Proceedings from this conference will be presented as a report to be released in April 2021.
This summit was made possible through generous contributions from National Renewable Energy Laboratory and EDP Renewables.
For more information about the virtual summit, visit: https://www.reesummit.org/.
To receive the resulting report, email margaret@kehcomm.com.
The American Consortium for Equity in Education, publisher of the "Equity & Access" journal, celebrates and connects the educators, associations, community partners and industry leaders who are working to solve problems and create a more equitable environment for historically underserved pre K-12 students throughout the United States.
