Energy is today one of the key global challenges, and our decisions are critical for the short-term as well as for the long-term wellness of humankind. As members of the community, as prospective professionals and scientists, we are all called to learn about and face such challenge.
Awareness is one of the golden keys that, together with science and technology, must be used today to face one of the most urgent and important challenges on Planet Earth: the energy transition, i.e. the topic of our School.
Photovoltaics is just one example of how awareness is critical in facing the energy challenge: today the cost of electricity from the Sun is cheaper than the one we buy from the utility companies. But most people are not aware of this. Rather, they think that solar energy without subsidies is not convenient. For this reason (that is not technical at all!) companies and families are losing money because they do not know, they are not aware.
The School on Energy “Giacomo Ciamician” is one piece of this puzzle, a step towards awareness. The School aims at providing students not only with the technical and scientific knowledge to address the energy issue, but also with the awareness of what we can do today, with “our feet on the ground” (and our “head in the clouds”), to move towards a smarter society.