Bolgatanga Senior High School affectionately called Big Boss has emerged winners of the regional contest of the 4th edition of the Renewable Energy Challenge being spearheaded by the National Energy Commission.
The theme for this year’s Renewable Energy Challenge is “Mechanized small-scale Agriculture using renewable energy technologies.” This saw 9 senior high schools in the Upper East Region present projects hoping to address some challenges in the agric sector at the regional challenge that took place at the Bolgatanga Girls’ Senior High School on Thursday, June 22, 2023
The schools that were in the contest for the regional competition include Bawku Senior High School, Bolgatanga SHS, Sirigu Integrated Senior High School, Navrongo Senior High School, OLL Girls’SHS, Notre Dame and Bolga Girls’ SHS. The rest are Awe SHS and St. John’s Integrated SHS.
At the end of the competition, Big Boss came 1st with 75 points followed closely by Bawku Senior SHS with 67 points. Bolga Girls’ SHS which represented the region last year placed 3rd in this year’s edition with 66.6 points whiles their all-male counterparts, Notre Dame placed 4th with 66 points.
Awe SHS, had 64.6 points to place 5th with Sirigu Integrated SHS getting 63 points to place 6th whiles John’s Integrated SHS placed 7th with 61.3 points. Navrongo SHS and OLL Girls’SHS placed 8th and 9th after getting 60.3 and 53 points respectively.
BIG BOSS, showed class, having developed an Automated Multipurpose Agro Solar Satellite (AMASS) at a total cost of 3,470 cedis with the aim of reducing the cost of production and equally reducing post-harvest losses.
The technology if properly developed has the capacity to irrigate farms and help dry farm produce.
Speaking on behalf of her colleagues, Ms. Amadu Zulaiha, says they are excited to have won the regional competition and look forward to the Zonal and hopefully the national competition.
“I feel very happy because it’s not easy to emerge first in a competition and this competition has been very competitive. I’m very happy about that. For the Zonal contest, we are well prepared. We will keep trying to do our best.
The preparation wasn’t that easy because you are coming up with ideas and then doing this and to me, I was having exams write and you equally have to prepare. So sometimes I have to go to your project, learning, and all those things, it hasn’t been easy. I must say that all our teachers have been very supportive because sometimes, some of our teachers have to stay awake all night to help us in case we need anything.
So, this project is an automated machine and what it does is to Convert solar energy from the sun into electrical energy we all know that electrical energy can be used for a lot of things, so the main purpose of our project is to utilize solar energy. And with our project, we are able to use solar energy to convert it into electrical energy that would be used for a lot of purposes.
Our project can be used in a lot of fields but this one is pertaining to agriculture that’s why we chose irrigation. So with the electricity being generated, we are able to use it to go our irrigation and also dry farm produce.” She added
Julius Nkansah-Nyarko, Project Coordinator of the Energy Commission’s SHS renewable energy challenge, said was impressed with the type of projects presented by the schools.
