Narrabri students take tech pitch to Evoke Ag

Five Narrabri High School students have gone to Brisbane, armed with a tech pitch for this week’s Evoke Ag event.

Jobe O’Regan, Holly Anderson, Stella Laws, Caitlin Evans and Zoe O’Connor put forward their concept of solar floats to the conference on Tuesday.

The students have been busily preparing their 15-minute pitch throughout the school holidays.

The solar float concept would see solar panels installed on floats in farm dams as a means to reduce evaporation, free up land space and to generate electricity in an environmentally friendly manner.

Backing up the concept is research conducted by the students, with support from local farming families including the Carberry and Schwager families as well as the region’s peak water body, Namoi Water.

Local businesses and organisations have also supported the students to attend this week’s conference.

Narrabri High School’s attendance at Evoke Ag at the Brisbane Convention Centre is unique in that it is the only school to make such a pitch.

Last year, the school was competing against two Farrer teams, two Moree teams and one NEGS team during an UNE and FarmLab event.

At the event, students had four hours to produce an idea and then present it to a panel of judges.

Following on from that event, the students then travelled to Armidale where they presented to another panel of judges and were again successful.

Students have put a phenomenal amount of work into the project and have designed their own logo as well as compiling the pitch.

The research includes potential water-saving figures through reduced evaporation as well as possible extra revenue by freeing up more land to increase planting area and cotton yield.

When The Courier visited the high school last week to hear the students’ pitch, they said the concept had been designed with cotton growers in mind.

“It’s creating a future where innovation and conservation come together,” Caitlin said.

“It’s transforming water, drop by drop,” Jobe said.