Solar power isn’t only good for the environment. It can generate economic, social, and educational benefits and help people around the world in unexpected ways.

Hong Kong’s two power companies launched a Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (FiT) Scheme in 2018, promising to buy electricity generated from renewable energy systems such as solar panels on the rooftops of residential or commercial buildings.

In an inspirational move, the Li Po Chun United World College (LPCUWC) of Hong Kong is using income from solar power for scholarships that support students from underprivileged backgrounds around the world, enhancing cultural diversity on campus. 

A financial assessment is taken to determine the level of scholarship granted to each applicant, up to full scholarship that can support all the expenses including tuition, books, rent, and examination entry fees. In the 2020/2021 academic year, scholarships were given to six students from Slovakia, Israel, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Madagascar, and Cambodia. 

LPCUWC Board Chairman Anthony Tong was delighted to see how the solar energy project helped both attract talented students and increase the college’s cultural diversity. “With the scholarship, we were proud to invite students from three new countries to join us in 2020 – Lebanon, Israel, and Slovakia. Now we have a campus which is full of energy from young people of 90 nationalities,” he says.

Lessons in low-carbon living

The solar power project, a collaboration between LPCUWC and CLP which won the Innovative Energy Project of the Year 2020 award (Asia Pacific Rim Region) from the Association of Energy Engineers, has also created exciting new opportunities for teaching and learning. Students can get involved in roles including site checking, evaluating the available models of solar panels, witnessing the installation work, and monitoring the electricity generation performance.  

The technological components of the solar power system have opened windows for STEM-focused learning, while the socio-economic aspects of the impact of renewable energy development can be explored in the classroom in the context of the students’ diverse backgrounds. 

The pioneering project has done much more than simply generate solar energy on a college campus. It's given life-changing opportunities to students with financial difficulties, and brought sustainability closer by inspiring young people to think about low-carbon goals and raising their awareness of how to safeguard the planet.