Green Energy, Clean Future: Renewable Energy and Sustainable Practices in Education

Name: Green Energy, Clean Future: Renewable Energy and Sustainable Practices in Education
Price: 400 EUR

Why this is Erasmus+ eligible

Structured, multi-day programme (5 days) with a pre-defined schedule and learning outcomes — not a passive lecture format.

Built around interaction: participants engage directly with the trainer and with peers from other countries throughout the course.

Transnational by design — open to participants travelling from outside the host country, a core requirement of Erasmus+ mobility funding.

Aligned with the Erasmus+ horizontal priority: Green & Environmental Sustainability.

The Erasmus+ Programme Guide names environment and climate action as a horizontal priority, stating that Erasmus+ is "a key instrument for building the knowledge, skills, and attitudes on climate change and supporting sustainable development within the European Union and beyond" (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Part A – Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, p. 9).

Overview

This week turns the EU’s renewable-energy target into things you build with your own hands and can rebuild with a class, so students learn not only how renewable energy works but why it matters.

Monday — you contrast renewable and fossil fuels through a game and start developing renewable-energy project ideas for a school.
Tuesday — you build a mini solar panel and run an online wind-turbine design simulation.
Wednesday — you build a compost bin to see how organic waste breaks down, and why sealing it from air is what produces biogas, then design a bioenergy project for school.
Thursday — you explore emerging energy technologies and turn one of the week’s builds into a lesson for your own class, with a visit to a local school’s working installation where one is available and in session.
Friday — you weigh energy-efficiency strategies against what the week’s builds could realistically offset, and present your own renewable-energy project to a panel of peers and the trainer.

You go home with three hands-on projects ready to rebuild with a class — the compost bin, the mini solar panel and the wind-turbine simulation — and a renewable-energy project for your school already presented to colleagues. All the components for the builds are provided at the centre, so there is nothing to source or bring in advance.

Description

Most students can already explain what a wind turbine does. Almost none of them could explain why the EU needed a directive to get more of them built — and that gap, between knowing the technology and understanding the policy behind it, is exactly where this course starts.

Under the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III), the EU has committed to sourcing at least 42.5% of its energy from renewables by 2030 — a collective, bloc-wide target, not a fixed quota imposed on each member state individually. Rather than leaving that number as a headline, the course hands it to participants as something to build, not just cite.

Participants construct a working mini solar panel, run an online wind-turbine design simulation, and build a compost bin to see how organic waste breaks down — the starting point for how bioenergy is made — three hands-on projects designed to travel straight back into a classroom. Where a local school with a working installation is in session, a visit shows renewable-energy projects operating in practice, and the week closes with each participant presenting their own renewable-energy project, in brief, to a panel of peers and the trainer.

The projects travel home ready to rebuild with a class, and so does the answer to the question a solar panel alone can’t give a student: not just how renewable energy works, but how one school’s efforts add up toward the EU’s wider 42.5% target.

The composting here is built as a hands-on project, alongside the solar and wind work — the point is what students construct and understand. If the question is food waste itself, how much of it a school actually produces and how that is measured and reduced before anything is composted, that is the subject of Zero Waste Schools: From Prevention to the Bin.

The three projects scale by age: primary classes usually manage the compost bin and a guided version of the solar-panel build, while the wind-turbine simulation and the full solar-panel build suit upper-primary and secondary groups.

For a school’s carbon, ecological and water footprints, see Environmental Sustainability And Education.

Methodology

Balanced Theory and Practice

A learner-centred mix of theoretical knowledge and hands-on activities, so you not only understand renewable energy but can teach it.

Hands-On Building

Real hands-on projects — building a mini solar panel, simulating wind turbine design, and constructing a compost bin as the starting point for bioenergy.

School-Ready Projects

Group activities turn ideas into concrete renewable-energy projects you can implement at your own school.

What you'll take home

Identify renewable energy sources (solar, wind, biomass, hydropower) and explain their environmental impact.

Rebuild the solar panel, the wind-turbine simulation and the compost bin with a class, and turn one of them into a ready-to-teach lesson.

Explain how solar panels and wind turbines work, through practical demonstrations.

Weigh energy-efficiency measures and renewable projects for your school against the EU's 42.5% target: what they could realistically cover, and what it would take.

Daily programme

Icebreaker: "Energy Cycle Game" — an interactive game contrasting renewable and fossil fuels
Introduction to renewable energy sources and the global energy crisis — the EU's Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) 42.5%-by-2030 target
Solar, wind, hydropower and biomass energy — opportunities for schools
Group activity: developing ideas for renewable energy projects in schools

Warm-up: quick team-building activity to reconnect the group
How solar energy systems work, and how to teach them
Wind energy and turbine design, and school applications
Hands-on: building a mini solar panel
Hands-on: wind turbine design simulation using an online tool such as KidWind's or WhiteBox Learning's
Group activity: planning renewable energy projects for schools

Implementing renewable energy projects in schools and lessons
Bioenergy: turning organic waste into energy, and how to teach it
Hands-on: building a compost bin — how organic waste breaks down in air, and why the same waste sealed away from air (anaerobic digestion) is what produces biogas
Group activity: designing bioenergy projects for schools

Future trends and innovations in renewable energy technologies
Hands-on: turning one of your three builds into a single lesson for your own class — the age group, the question it answers and what the students record — then trying it out on a partner
School visit: observing renewable-energy projects in practice, where a local school with a working installation is available and in session — the exact site is confirmed shortly before the course rather than in advance; otherwise, the session works through a documented school installation instead

Energy efficiency and conservation strategies for schools, sized against what the week's builds could realistically offset
Sustaining renewable energy projects within the school system: what share of the school's own energy use they could realistically cover, and what it would take to get there — set against the EU's 42.5% target introduced on Day 1
Final project: presenting your renewable energy project, in a short format, to a panel of fellow participants and the trainer
Course evaluation and reflection on learning
Certification ceremony

Please note: sessions run from 09:30 to 15:00, Monday to Friday, with a break for lunch. Timings can shift a little to suit the venue and the group. If you'd like a specific topic covered, let us know when you apply — the confirmed day-by-day schedule is sent to registered participants ahead of the course.

Certificate: we issue the Certificate of Attendance to everyone who's present for at least 80% of the course — tracked with the daily sign-in sheet (see Certificate & assessment).

Equipment: a few of our courses ask participants to bring a laptop — check the day-by-day programme above, or ask us if you're not sure.

Need a formal invoice or proforma for your school's records? Ask us — we issue official invoices with the participant's name and course details.

Materials & tools

Hands-on building activities (mini solar panel, compost bin) and an online wind-turbine design simulation, such as KidWind's or WhiteBox Learning's, used during the course. All components for the builds are provided at the centre — there is nothing to source or bring in advance.

Certificate & assessment

This is a Certificate of Attendance, not an exam-based qualification — recognition comes from completing the structured programme, not from passing a test. The real, lasting value is in the competencies listed above under What you'll take home.

Erasmus Mobility Academy

Certificate of Attendance

Green Energy, Clean Future: Renewable Energy and Sustainable Practices in Education · 5 days · 25 hrs

+ Europass Mobility document

Type your name above — clearly marked "SAMPLE" in the PDF, not an official document.

The real certificate is signed by your trainer and EMA's authorised signatory. Your own signature isn't on this document — it's captured separately, on the Europass Mobility document.

Need to verify a real certificate? Check it online using the serial number and participant's full name, or contact us directly — [email protected], OID E10304561.

Attendance

Tracked using a sign-in sheet with one signature per participant per day (paper or digital). This record is used to issue your Certificate of Attendance and Europass Mobility document. View sign-in sheet (PDF)

Output

Every participant leaves with a completed Dissemination & School Impact Plan — a step-by-step template for applying the course back at your school (see below).

Feedback

An end-of-course evaluation form is sent to every participant after the course ends — a chance to reflect on what you've learned and how you'll apply it, and it helps us keep improving the course for future participants.

Your paperwork

Keep your travel tickets, boarding passes and (if you used green travel) any related receipts — your school or National Agency may ask for these for their own Erasmus+ reporting.

Your trainer

Heemanshu Gupta

Course Trainer & Coordination Partner (BECYA)

Budapest

How to prepare

All the components for the builds — the solar panel kit, wind-turbine simulation and compost bin — are provided at the centre; there is nothing to source or bring in advance.

A laptop or tablet is useful for the wind-turbine simulation, though centre computers are also available.

Practical information

Registration & documents

Not sure how registering works or what paperwork is involved? See our full Registration & Documents guide — from applying to your Certificate of Attendance, in one place.

Invitation letter

Need a formal invitation letter for your school or embassy? Request one — we send it within 2 business days. See a sample (PDF).

Learning Agreement

Prepared by our staff and sent to you and your school once your registration form is submitted — see what it looks like. See a sample (PDF).

Billing & invoicing

We issue official invoices/proformas with the participant's name and course details — ask us. Payment is due in full by bank transfer before the course start date. See a sample (PDF).

Airport transfer

Guidance on getting from the nearest airport to the venue is included in your welcome information.

Accommodation

We can recommend partner hotels close to the venue in the host city — ask us when you apply.

For your school / proposal

School impact

After completing this course, the participating staff member can transfer outcomes directly to their school: a short briefing for colleagues sharing the key takeaways, applying relevant tools or strategies from the programme in their own role, and inclusion of the course materials in the school's professional development resources — turning one person's mobility into a wider institutional gain that supports the school's Erasmus+ objectives. Use the Dissemination & School Impact Plan below to fill in your own — it saves as you go and can generate a one-page summary for your coordinator too.

Prefer a blank, course-independent version of this template? Get it here →

After the course

Participants will receive their Certificate of Attendance and the co-signed Europass Mobility document.

Participants will complete a general course evaluation and event survey.

Participants will receive course materials, videos, photos, and PDF documents in both digital and print formats.

Follow-up support: an email group is created for idea exchange, self-evaluation materials are provided, and participants receive a follow-up check-in after 3 months to discuss progress on applying renewable energy projects in their own schools.

Frequently asked

This course is an eligible training activity under Erasmus+ Key Action 1 (School Education Mobility) — the course fee, travel and subsistence fall within the eligible cost categories. Whether it is covered depends on your own project's approved grant agreement and your National Agency's rules; we provide all the invoices, attendance records and certificates your National Agency requires for reporting.

B1 is enough — you do not need to be fluent. Trainers speak slowly and plainly, every session is built around doing something rather than sitting and listening, and groups are mixed by nationality so people help each other out. A rough test: if you could follow a staff meeting held in English and ask a question in it, you will be fine here.

Absolutely — group bookings of 3+ from one school or organisation receive priority placement, and we can schedule a dedicated session for groups of 12 or more.

Our courses run on request at our centres in Antalya, İstanbul, İzmir, Mersin, Budapest, Bremen and Rome. Tell us your preferred city and dates and we will arrange a session.

Tuition, all course materials, your Certificate of Attendance, and the co-signed Europass Mobility document. Flights, accommodation and travel insurance are booked separately — we send a vetted hotel list.

You can move to any later session free of charge. Cancellations made 30+ days before the start date receive a full refund; a reduced refund applies closer to the date — see our full Cancellation & Refund Policy for the exact schedule.

The Erasmus+ Programme Guide names environment and climate action as a horizontal priority, stating that Erasmus+ is "a key instrument for building the knowledge, skills, and attitudes on climate change and supporting sustainable development within the European Union and beyond" (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Part A – Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, p. 9). Frame it in your own project's terms — your National Agency's current call will confirm exactly how it applies.

No. The hands-on projects (mini solar panel, wind-turbine simulation, compost bin) are built step-by-step for classroom teachers with no engineering background — no prior technical experience is assumed.