High school student secures funding for game-changing school upgrade: 'It's not that hard, really'

With a year of effort and aid from several green funding programs, Canadian high school student Josh Mullen has secured $30,000 so his school can install an array of solar panels on campus, CHMA News reported.

Mullen first heard about the youth-led N:OW for Net Zero grant program from Quinn MacAskill, a friend and alum of Tantramar Regional High School.

Mullen decided to try his luck and put together an application. Not only did he secure funding from N:OW for Net Zero, but he also had success with the Mount Allison Students' Union Green Investment Fund and EOS Eco Energy.

Between the three programs, Mullen secured a total of $30,000 for the school's solar project.

While he is not sure about the exact details of the setup, a system worth $25,000 installed by the town of Sackville generated more than 12,600 kilowatt-hours of electricity in its first full year of operation and prevented over 4.6 tons of carbon air pollution.

Mullen is happy about the material impact of his choice to take local action but even happier about what the solar panels represent.

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"The solar panels themselves are really nice," he told CHMA News, "but I think the biggest, one of the most influential outcomes of these solar panels is actually the impact it's going to have on the kids."

According to Mullen, the project will show his fellow students the impact they can have on heat-trapping air pollution and the resulting rise in global temperatures.

"It's not actually some abstract, impossible thing," he said. "That's something that we really need to focus on a lot more these days. Not so much the bad stuff, but more so, how we can fight these things? … It's not that hard, really. We just need to work together. Just get to it."

To that end, he hoped that the other students could help install the solar panels if they are interested.