Glen Urquhart High School team wins COP26 Scottish Schools’ Lego Hydrogen Challenge
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Budding boffins from Glen Urquhart High School have won a national competition to build the most efficient green hydrogen Lego vehicle.
Over 4000 pupils from over 70 schools took part in the Scottish Schools’ Hydrogen Challenge following its launch at the end of August, with the top teams going on to compete in the final at ScottishPower’s headquarters in Glasgow to coincide with the city hosting the United Nations COP26 climate change conference.
Heats across Scotland, including ones held in Wick, Fort William and Inverness saw the teams demonstrate teamwork, determination and the ability to problem solve as they worked to build the most efficient vehicle fuelled by green hydrogen.
Delivered by Arcola Energy and supported by partners ScottishPower, ITM Power, Arup, Abbott Risk Consulting, Opito, the Scottish Cities Alliance and the Hydrogen Accelerator, the competition aimed to educate students on the role of green hydrogen in tackling the ongoing climate emergency, opportunities for careers in this new industry and to help create excitement ahead of COP26.
Glen Urquhart's winning team of Juliet Hall, Connie MacLennan, Cara Armstrong and Morag Dyce took top place with a distance of 105m – achieved with just Lego and green hydrogen.
Making it a top two for Highland schools, Plockton High School secured second place with a total distance of 99.36m.
Barry Carruthers, ScottishPower’s hydrogen director, said: “We are so thrilled to welcome students to our headquarters here in Glasgow for what has been an incredible grand finale to the Scottish Schools’ Hydrogen Challenge.
“Green hydrogen is going to prove crucial in Scotland’s work to achieve net zero emissions by 2045, it can provide the zero carbon fuel needed where electrification can’t or won’t reach. We hope this challenge has helped inspire some of the students we have met over the past few weeks and I have no doubt we will see some of them in the future helping to lead the way in a thriving green hydrogen economy.”
Arcola Energy chief executive Dr. Ben Todd added: “The Scottish Hydrogen Schools Challenge has been a great opportunity to bring together students from local communities across the country and we have been impressed with their passion for making an impact on climate change,”
“Arcola Energy has delivered hands-on hydrogen education programmes to more than 100,000 students over the past 12 years, as part of our goal to deliver practical solutions to decarbonise transport – many examples of which will be on Scottish roads in the coming years.”
Dr Graham Cooley, ITM Power's chief executive, said, “The Schools Hydrogen Challenge has been an incredible success. We are proud to be working with partners Arcola and Scottish Power, who are as passionate as we are about inspiring the future generation of scientists and engineers. We hope all the students who took part enjoyed the programme. Who knows, maybe we will be working with them in the future!”
