Renewables revolutionaries on a mission
They are the youthful vanguard of South Australia’s renewables revolution — and they’re on a mission from God.
They are the youthful vanguard of South Australia’s renewables revolution — and they’re on a mission from God.
In a partnership that will inflame climate sceptics but is being hailed by business and the South Australian government as a high-value program, a Catholic college in the state’s southeast has entered a formal alliance with some of the biggest players in wind and solar to teach renewable technology as a recognised part of its school curriculum.
For Mount Gambier’s Tenison Woods College, the program isn’t just about arming graduates with job-ready skills for the local renewables industry — it’s about living the values set out in the 2015 papal encyclical Laudato Si, in which Francis said humanity had a moral imperative to preserve itself for future generations.
The college is taking it so seriously that it has enlisted its students to install several hundred solar panels to take the entire school off grid by 2030.
And its student leadership includes a designated school “environmental captain”, Lachie Price, 18, tasked with devising strategies to help the environment.
The school works with Tindo Solar and Danish-owned Vestas — which builds and operates wind farms, including the Lake Bonney operation near Mount Gambier, where Tenison Woods students receive work experience in the renewables sector.
It is the first school in Australia to offer hands-on solar and wind farm learning with its STEM program as part of a TAFE course.
“It’s crazy that people think climate change isn’t real or that it’s something we can ignore,” Mr Price said.
“There is a chance for us not just to future-proof Australia but to build whole new industries and create jobs by becoming world leaders.”
Tenison Woods principal David Mezinec said the principle of “integral ecology” — where every action must be checked against its impact on the environment — was one of the pillars of the school’s strategic plan.
“It is part of our understanding of how we live a Christian life, a Catholic life,” he said.
The school has a sustainability co-ordinator, Tom Linnell, who says he is “not super religious” but driven by a desire to find practical environmental solutions and work opportunities in a sector.
“The idea of caring for creation and global stewardship is something that really resonates with young people,” he said.
