QF’s Qatar National Day celebrations highlight the value of renewable energy

From solar panels to wind power, visitors to Qatar Foundation’s Qatar National Day celebrations have been discovering how renewable energy can be a driving force for change.

Reflecting Qatar Foundation's (QF) commitment to providing opportunities for the whole community to expand their knowledge, Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) has organized a range of educational and recreational activities centered around renewable energy within the QF tent at Darb Al Saai.

QEERI activities included the Grid Structure, where visitors were introduced to sustainability and renewable energy, a forecasting activity which enabled them to check the air quality and weather forecast throughout the day, and a Sustainability Bicycle that provides an insight into how much energy is produced while cycling.

“The bicycle experience wasn't easy, as it took some strength to achieve the goal behind this activity," said Fahad Al-Hajri, who visited QEERI’s booth and was among those to try out the Sustainability Bicycle.

"Through this experience, I understood how the bicycle takes the kinetic energy storage resulting from exercising or moving and converting it into electrical energy. This idea will contribute to the establishment of a culture of movement, and help to realize the goal of energy conservation and sustainability."

Speaking about the forecasting activity, QF tent visitor Reem Al-Marri said: "I liked the idea of this activity as it helped us to find out about air quality in a simple way, showing it in the form of specific colors, and indicating the presence of rain, the wind speed and direction, and the sustainable energy that we can get through this."

Salem Ali, who visited the QEERI booth with his family, said: "My children learned about solar panels and how we can use sunlight as kinetic energy, as well as how we can convert the energy produced by the wind into electricity."

According to Mahmoud Masoud, an electrical engineer and one of the exhibitors at the QEERI booth: “Renewable energy is endless sustainable energy, and it is also clean energy.

“In the Gulf countries, we often use traditional methods to produce energy, such as burning gas or oil, but the disadvantages of this are that it is non-renewable energy and creates emissions that are harmful to the environment. These are the most important messages that we are trying to deliver to the public, in addition to give them knowledge about green energy.”

QF’s Qatar National Day celebrations at Darb Al Saai are being held under the theme of Our Unity...Our Pride until December 20, with the QF tent featuring an array of educational and recreational activities.