Between the 24th and 26th of April, the traveling cart Road Show ABGD Huawei Solar held an exhibition with electrical equipment and offered courses in the introductory and integrative categories for users and visitors to Unicamp. The action is an initiative of the Brazilian Association of Distributed Generation (ABGD), in partnership with the company Huawei, and received support from São Paulo Center for Energy Transition Studies (CPTEn) and the Living Energy Transition, Efficiency and Sustainability Laboratory Unicamp Sustainable Campus. The opening of the event was attended by Luiz Carlos Pereira da Silva, professor at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Feec) at Unicamp, director of CPTEn and coordinator of the Sustainable Campus, Guilherme Chisprim, president of ABGD, professionals from area and students. The entire program took place inside the trailer, in the Feec parking lot.
Rafaela Franco, a graduate student at the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering (Feagri), participated in one of the courses and it didn't take long to make connections between what she learned and her professional performance. “I work with agroecology in rural settlements. There are rural workers there in vulnerable situations and the difficulty in accessing electricity is one of them”, reported the student. Due to the lack of conventional solutions, says Franco, sometimes some of these communities can only access electricity outside of legality and safety standards.
The graduate student's perception is not a coincidence. Second o president of ABGD, the courses offered by the ABGD Huawei Solar Road Show have this objective. “We do not intend to say that someone entered the course at 8 am, left at 12 pm and is qualified to climb on the roof and install a photovoltaic system. That's not it, that's not the idea. This is an opportunity for people interested in learning about the systems and, perhaps, installing them at home or in a business, as well as for those who also want to develop a business in this regard”, explains Chrispim.
“The interest of CPTEn and Campus Sustentável in supporting this cart project lies in the fact that the energy transition, thinking about the entire country and the planet itself, needs professionals, especially in a country the size of Brazil, everywhere, from professionals well prepared to work in this area. And the university takes a long time to achieve this necessary technical training throughout the country. The trailer has the role of traveling around the country, bringing training to the States in enormous quantities, enabling a more accelerated energy transition to renewable energy”, comments Luiz Carlos, who draws attention to initiatives developed at the University with the support of the Research Support Foundation of the State of São Paulo (Fapesp) and in partnership with companies in the sector, such as Companhia Paulista de Força e Luz (CPFL).
Energy transition circuit
Around 90 students from Colégio Pentágono also visited the exhibition in the Road Show trailer. The first-year high school classes attended on Tuesday (25) to carry out the Energy Transition Circuit, during the Eyes on the Future Journey, an initiative that is part of the Sustainable Campus project. And, if on the one hand, the exhibition is itinerant, on the other, the Circuit, a guided tour in which participants get to know the facilities of the Laboratório Vivo Campus Sustentável, on the Unicamp campus in Barão Geraldo, is permanent. The tour is offered by the interdisciplinary research and extension program Olhos no Futuro, coordinated by Danúsia Arantes, postdoctoral fellow at Feec within the scope of CPTEn and the Sustainable Campus.
“The Circuit stimulates participants’ perception in understanding what the energy transition is, what elements make it up, drawing attention to renewable energy and forms of generation. We showed the photovoltaic installations, the electric bus, the labeling of buildings, all the technological applications that we have within Unicamp, which contribute to the energy transition”, explains the post-doctoral student. She remembers that the organization of the visit is prepared by members of the Energize, one of the subprojects that address energy sustainability in schools as an essential goal.
Manolo Rodrigues, Chemistry teacher at the school, highlights the importance of putting students in contact with the university experience, so they can relate what they learn at school with what the university offers and perceive new opportunities. According to the teacher, they will be more prepared to make their future choices, their own paths, with more peace of mind. “Within the work we do at the school, in the training itinerary, it is important for students to relate what we work on at the school with what the university does. It is very important to understand that our study, carried out in high school, is not a separate thing. I believe that their arrival at Unicamp will open unexpected paths”, he reflects.
