Minister for Energy, the Hon Angus Taylor, has officially launched Australia’s first fully off-grid renewable classroom at Bracken Ridge State High School in Queensland.
Known as ‘The Hivve’, the classroom is powered by a combination of solar and a Tesla Powerwall battery, making it entirely energy self-sufficient with the capacity to inject additional energy back into the electricity grid.
With technology developed right here in Australia, Hivve is a world-first that can run fully independent of the electricity grid. Driven by proprietary technology, Hivve creates sufficient power to run its climate controlled, state-of-the-art learning space as well as feed excess power back into the school network.
Hivve holds significant financial benefits for schools in terms of savings on energy costs. This is achieved by reducing the pressure on the electricity grid and eliminating the substantial up-front costs of upgrading school energy infrastructure.
Hivve classrooms also feature a ‘smart’ dashboard which provides real-time data, allowing teachers to constantly control and monitor the room’s temperature, energy systems and CO2 levels.
Prior to its official launch, Hivve was trialled in three schools during 2018 – Dapto High School and Holsworthy Catholic Primary School in New South Wales and Bracken Ridge State High School in Queensland, successfully making the transition from concept to commercial reality.
In commenting on the launch, Hivve CEO, David Wrench, said that Hivve has the potential to be a game changer for the education system by relegating hot, overcrowded and energy-intensive classrooms to the history books.
“This is both environmentally responsible and economically compelling, with the potential to reduce power bills for each classroom by $3,000 per annum and eliminate the high costs of connection to the electricity grid as well as reducing the overall pressure on the electricity grid,” Mr Wrench said.
“We commend the forward thinking of the Federal Government in funding these unique pilot programs which have been foundational to the progression of Hivve’s Australian-developed technology from concept to commercialisation.”
“Hivve’s smart technology gives students and teachers real-time access to its living systems – including how much energy is being generated and used plus temperature and air quality data – enabling students to enjoy practical, real-life lessons in caring for our planet, and making it easy for teachers to control the classroom environment,” he added.
More information on Hivve sustainable schools can be found here.