Wolmerian engineer and technology serial entrepreneur, Silicon Valley-based Lloyd Carney, has led an initiative to install solar electricity generation across all three Wolmer’s campuses.

In collaboration with Wolmer’s Trust, the system has been commissioned at a cost of US$445,000, with Lloyd Carney being the major donor with a generous personal gift of USS$323,000.                      

The system produces electricity savings in the order of J$16,000,000 per year.

The savings are then to be applied to the objective articulated by major donor Lloyd Carney—“To make Wolmer’s one of the premier science and technology schools in the world.”

This would include investments in Wi-Fi, internet access, science labs, and high-quality teaching methodologies. The system includes 954 solar panels on rooftops across the Boys, Girls and Prep schools’ roofs. JPS consumption is thus reduced substantially. Excess solar electricity generated is sold back to JPS producing additional income.

To further save on electricity, 907 LED lights and 60 variable speed a/c units were installed to replace older less efficient lights and a/c units.

Lloyd Carney attended Wolmer’s Trust High School for Boys in the 1970s. In his words, ‘Wolmer’s gave me the grounding in science, maths and self-confidence, that has been the bedrock of my success in life. I want to give the younger generation of 3,400 students at our three Wolmer’s schools the same solid foundation. The world is changing faster each day. A large cadre of young people immersed in science, technology, engineering and maths is absolutely essential for the future development of our country. Time is not on our side as we are falling behind the developed world. We need to make the moves now!”

Lloyd Carney is the founder and chairman of USA-based Carney Technology Acquisition Corp II (CTAC II)—a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) which successfully raised US$400M to focus on technology acquisitions. He is chairman of Grid Dynamics, a Nasdaq-listed company focusing on transformative digital solutions. He is a director of Visa as well as several other companies. He was recently appointed Chancellor of the University of Technology.