First Gen Corp. has launched a competition for students to develop the best and most innovative ideas and solutions that cut their schools’ carbon footprint.
The company said 29 universities and colleges all over the country have joined, where a P1 million innovation fund is at stake for use as seed capital and bring to life the winning proposal.
Ricky Carandang, First Gen vice president and head of corporate communications, said at least 52 teams from 29 schools registered as participants in the Code Green for Campuses competition during its recent launch online.
Of the registered teams, 51 submitted their concept paper before the deadline lapsed on 9 February. Of the submitted entries, 43 passed the initial screening and will undergo an elimination round on 19 February to determine the top 15 entries for the semifinal round.
Carandang said that at the semifinal stage, the top 15 teams will get their respective mentors to help them prepare or pitch their proposals for implementation in their schools.
In the final round, the five remaining participants will present their entries before a panel of judges on 16 March.
Aside from the P1 million innovation fund for the winning school, the student team topping the competition also gets a P100,000 prize, the first runner-up receives P75,000, the second runner-up P50,000, third runner-up P30,000; and fourth runner-up, P20,000.
First Gen as power generation company has combined capacity of 3,501 megawatts generated by a portfolio using natural gas, geothermal, hydroelectric, wind and solar power technologies.
First Gen also plans spending as much as $20 billion until 2030 to add up to 9,640 MW capacity and achieve a total portfolio of some 13,000 MW by that time.
