The Department of Energy will award $430,000 to the GW’s Solar Institute to fund a two-year education project, according to a release Thursday.
Working in partnership with GW Planet Forward and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Solar Institute will develop a series of multimedia materials to educate firefighters, real estate agents, financiers and others about solar energy.
Amit Ronen, the director of the Solar Institute, said in the release that as solar energy becomes more popular, it is necessary to educate people about its benefits and risks. For example, firefighters may need training to know how to put out a fire on a rooftop solar panel, he said.
“We know our target audiences are super busy and don’t have the time or patience to sit through a day long training, so our goal is to use cutting-edge multimedia tools that will provide them with concise information in accessible and entertaining formats,” Ronen said.
The award comes from the Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, a $10 million project aimed at educating the public about solar energy. The project will connect veterans with jobs in the solar industry through the Solar Ready Vets program.
The multimedia series funded through the grant will include educational and entertaining videos to explain topics that the Solar Institute will choose via a survey. The videos will be available to the public on the Solar Institute’s website.
Students and participants of Planet Forward, founded by School of Media and Public Affairs Director Frank Sesno, will produce and edit videos.
“Storytelling can have immense impact to communicate information, best practices and the excitement of innovation,” Sesno said in a release. “Nowhere is this more apparent than in the story of solar, which is changing the energy landscape.”
