"Why not ?" : teenagers have solutions to the energy crisis

“Our goal is to save energy,” explains the teenager. Rewarded on Wednesday in Neuilly in the national "Science factor" competition intended to make middle and high school students love science, she was questioned by AFP upon arriving in Paris with her technology teacher, Vincent Bessaguet.

The surge in gas and electricity prices across Europe in the winter of 2022-2023 has left deep marks on families. And sparked some scientific vocations, even among young people who “had nothing to do with science” like Chloé.

“One day, my mother sent me to get the mail from the mailbox. When I opened an envelope, I realized that parents pay a lot of money for electricity,” explains Cheryfell Thiam, also 14 years old.

With three classmates, she proposed a project for “translucent solar glass that converts solar energy into electricity” for the same competition.

In 3th grade at Jean Moulin College in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), the teenager worked half to “help her parents” pay the bills, half because she wonders how she will be able to live later. if the price of electricity does not stop increasing.

Energy imagination being in power, Emmy Hauchecorne, in another third year class of the same establishment, received a "favorite" prize with three classmates: "We take noise to transform it into energy, and power buses" .

By capturing and recycling the vibrations of city noise to create electrical energy stored in batteries, her project should make it possible to “reduce pollution” with buses that run on “sound electricity”, summarizes Emmy.

“The students will save the planet”

“Before, science was just a subject like any other, today I realized that we can change things a little for the planet,” adds Emmy.

“They are the students who will save the planet”: Stéphanie Trottel, the technology teacher who accompanied the two classes from Le Havre, is sure of it. Her colleague Vincent Bessaguet, from Saint-Junien, who guided Chloé's project, also firmly believes in experimentation to encourage vocations.

“For the bus project, they managed to light up LEDs using sound, but they don't yet know how to calculate how many decibels it takes to get how many volts, that's normal, they're only in third grade,” said Mrs. Trottel.

Mr. Bessaguet's student project won first prize in the Energy category of the competition. “It’s a red and gray painting that we made using a 3D printer, with a black support on which we place phones to recharge” using around twenty used batteries, explains Chloé, who led the small team. “When we throw away a battery, it often still has 60 to 80% of its capacity,” explains the teacher.

Kilian, who participated in the same project, “already had a taste for science” before the experiment. Now he is sure: he wants to become an engineer.

The Science Factor competition highlights inventions made by middle and high school students, trying to encourage girls. It is supported by several ministries including National Education, companies such as Orange, Engie, Sopra Steria, but also the public bank BpiFrance.

There remains a major problem, money. Like their elders in the labs, budding scientists need money to be able to make prototypes. “It’s complicated to find sponsors to buy a piezoelectric sensor in college,” summarizes Ms. Trottel.