Abstract

The question of how energy supply can be secured sustainably and in the long term in the future is the focus of current political debates. Renewable energies play a major role in plans to meet future energy needs. Steadily rising prices for fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas or the still unresolved question of nuclear waste disposal make these discussions particularly necessary. Renewable and thus CO2-free energies are also needed to counteract climate change and ensure a long-term sustainable energy supply in the future. The Solarsupport project, which was funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment (FKZ 0327613), is situated in this context of sustainable energy supply. The project was coordinated by the Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU) and carried out in cooperation with the Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (Institut für Zukunftsstudien und Technologiebewertung gGmbH) and the German Solar Energy Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sonnenenergie Landesverband Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. - DGS). The project deals specifically with the topic of the pedagogical treatment of solar energy use in schools. Despite the relatively high number of solar installations in schools, very few use these installations in a teaching context. The Solarsupport project has conducted a survey among schools with solar installations. As the main reasons for the insufficient use of solar systems in the classroom, the teachers surveyed named "lack of a pedagogical concept" and "lack of interest on the part of colleagues", which in turn can be mutually dependent. At the same time, it became clear that many solar systems can only be used poorly pedagogically due to the lack of technical equipment (lack of displays, lack of evaluation possibilities of their yields and lack of integration into school computers and the internet). Based on this analysis, a more detailed inventory was made and it was analysed what the obstacles are to the educational use of the systems. The work of the project was divided into three areas of work. Firstly, examples of good practice in the field of technical and data equipment of solar plants for the purpose of educational and communicative use were developed. Secondly, examples of good practice, especially in project-oriented educational use, were compiled and further developed. Thirdly, teaching units for primary school (4th and 5th grade) and primary level I were developed, which have different aspects of the system as their topic and especially refer to the inclusion of the system in regular lessons. This workshop report on good practice in the educational use of solar energy documents the findings. The descriptions of good practice are complemented by individual suggestions for optimising the educational use of the system.

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