An all-girls team from Fred Norman Secondary School in Ennerdale has emerged as one of the standout groups in City Power’s 2026 Energy Efficiency and Demand Side Management Schools Competition, after presenting an innovative project that explores how everyday movement can be turned into electricity.
The competition brought together learners from 12 public non-fee-paying high schools at City Power’s head office in Reuven, where they presented energy-saving and renewable energy projects over two days on 12 and 15 June.
The learners impressed adjudicators with a practical demonstration of piezoelectricity, a technology that converts pressure and movement into electrical energy. Their model reimagined Johannesburg’s busy Bree Street with piezoelectric materials embedded beneath the road surface, showing how passing vehicles could generate electricity to power lights and other systems.
City Power spokesperson, Isaac Mangena said the competition showed that young people were not only learning about energy efficiency, but were already thinking seriously about solutions to South Africa’s energy challenges: “The future of South Africa’s energy solutions lies firmly in the hands of Johannesburg’s youth.”
For Fred Norman Secondary School, the focus was on showing how a city’s existing movement could become part of the energy solution. The team’s model demonstrated how the pressure from vehicles compressing piezoelectric disks could generate electric charges and light up LED displays.
Mangena said the learners arrived “prepared and passionate”, with projects that demonstrated “not only technical ingenuity but also a deep understanding of Johannesburg’s energy landscape”.
The Fred Norman team’s idea stood out because it applied clean-energy thinking to everyday urban life. The learners suggested that piezoelectric technology could be used in busy areas such as roads, malls, schools and shopping centres.
Mangena said the competition had confirmed that Johannesburg’s classrooms were already producing ideas that could help address the country’s energy challenges.
“This year’s EEDSM Schools Competition has done more than identify promising projects; it has confirmed that Johannesburg’s classrooms are already generating the ideas and determination needed to overcome the country’s energy challenges,” he said.
The Fred Norman learners’ achievement adds to a growing wave of science excellence coming from Ennerdale schools. Earlier this year, Daleview Secondary School learner Nkateko Moyane was selected to represent South Africa at the IRIS Global Symposium in India for his environmental science project, ECOHARVEST, which explores using plants to remove heavy metals from contaminated soil and mining wastewater. Ennerdale Secondary School’s Naftal Khoza also flew the community’s flag high after winning a Silver medal at the Beijing Youth Science Creation Competition in China, proving that learners from Ennerdale are making their mark nationally and internationally in science and innovation.
