Youth-Led Solar: Powering Our Community
The Exchange is committed to preparing the next generation of New Yorkers to respond to climate change. This work is not only about the future—it’s about mobilizing youth now in the places where they live, learn, and play. With more frequent flash floods putting lives and neighborhoods at risk, and pollution from wildfires and local power generating stations causing record asthma rates, young people must learn a range of skills and tools to adapt and respond to the changing world around them.
The most effective way for youth to learn about climate is in ways that are hands-on, multi-disciplinary, and rooted in community – giving them knowledge and agency to respond to the challenges they see around them. Fortunately, our network of partners offers a wide range of creative and effective programs that do just that. Earlier this year, we set out to pilot a collaborative approach to youth education with our partners at Solar One and the Variety Boys and Girls Club in Queens called Youth-Led Solar: Powering Our Community. In this pilot, a group of high school-age students engaged in a project where they built a solar energy unit to power Variety Boys and Girls Club's urban rooftop farm, Sky Farm, and installed an air quality sensor to support long-term learning about their environment.
In this pilot, students learned about renewable energy, how they can participate in the energy transition, and gained hands-on green skills. In addition, they learned about the impacts of air pollution on their community, and how to collect and track data from a sensor. Our partners at GOLES and Green City Force advised the students on how they can leverage data in support of community action and activism. The solar cart will power operations at Sky Farm, Variety Boys and Girls Clubs of Queens’ urban rooftop farm. But the carts' use cases are flexible and designed to adapt to the needs of the community, so it could be used for anything from community charging during natural disasters to powering sound systems for community events.
“Solar One is excited to work with the New York Climate Exchange to implement youth-led climate solutions,” said Karen Alsen, Managing Director of Education at Solar One. “This collaboration utilizes clean energy as a catalyst for STEM education and enables participants to share their learning with their community. We appreciate the various partners who have come together to inspire participants to be climate leaders.”
"Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens is so excited to partner with the New York Climate Exchange and Solar One on this innovative project teaching our youth how to construct a solar array and then install it for their use,” said Costa Constantinides, CEO of Variety Boys and Girls Club. “Renewable energy is our future and kids learning these 21st century skills will help them understand sustainability measures and how these jobs can be windows to the middle class in the future."
On November 21, participating students hosted a community activation event at Variety to share their completed solar cart with their community and inspire local engagement. Students showed their friends, family, and community how the cart works, how it will help them advocate for their community, and why it’s essential to use renewable energy.
The Exchange is grateful for the support of our partners in bringing this youth leadership opportunity together. We look forward to following the success of these students as they continue their solar-powered projects, gaining valuable hands-on experience with sustainable technology and collecting climate data—all for greater urban resilience.