Greener schools on the way
Thousands of youngsters will soon be attending new high-tech, energy-efficient schools, according to Education Minister Evripidis Stylianidis who said that 1,233 of these buildings would be constructed in Greece over the next five years. He revealed the plans after visiting a nursery school in Palaio Faliron, southern Athens, that has been built based on a bioclimatic design so that it takes advantage of natural sources of energy, such as the sun, and uses less electricity from the national grid. The new smart schools will be built by 2013 at a total cost of some 400 million euros. Photovoltaic systems will be installed at 80 percent of the new nurseries and 60 percent of other schools that are scheduled to be built. The construction of the new schools as opposed to traditional ones will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a total of 7,330 tons a year while also producing almost 8.5 million kilowatt hours of energy. Stylianidis added that a pilot scheme to encourage recycling will soon start at 33 of the country’s schools.
