The Journal of Engineering and Exact Sciences – jCEC, Vol. 09 N. 02 (2023) journal homepage: https://periodicos.ufv.br/jcec eISSN: 2527-1075 ISSN: 2446-9416 1 A Survey on the Understanding and Viewpoints of Renewable Energy among South African School Students Article Info: Article history: Received 2022-10-22 / Accepted 2023-02-13 / Available online 2023-02-13 doi: 10.18540/jcecvl9iss2pp15375-01e Daniel Raphael Ejike Ewim ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7229-8980 Department of Mechanical Engineering Durban University of Technology South Africa. E-mail: daniel.ewim@yahoo.com Sogo Mayokun Abolarin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1712-5104 Department Engineering Sciences, University of the Free State Bloemfontein, South Africa. E-mail: abolarinsm@ufs.ac.za Temiloluwa Olatunji Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-7660-4343 Department of Education, Vaal University of Technology, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa E-mail: scotunji@gmail.com Chidebe Stanley Anyanwu ORCID: https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-6059-9495 Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering Purdue University IN, USA E-mail: anyacs01@pfw.edu, chidebe112@gmail.com Abstract Renewable energy has become an essential component for the survival of human beings. This is because conventional energy supply is limited, nearing its limits, and or destroying our environment. The complete transition to renewable energy is a major approach to achieving sustainable and clean energy distribution progress in this ever-changing and demanding world. This research work investigates the knowledge of renewable energy among the youth and their understanding of sustainable energy prosperity towards meeting the future generation's energy needs. To achieve this, a set of questionnaires was developed to identify their knowledge of various renewable energy resources, energy aspects, applications, and the extent to which the current syllabus provides a well- developed background. They were administered to high school students in KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. The main findings of this investigation reveal that the students were most familiar with solar energy, which could be due to the increasing availability of solar panels across the nation. However, a lack of awareness and little understanding of geothermal energy was noted among the high school students. This indicates a poor future for its development. Furthermore, 86% of the students agreed that conventional energy sources would likely still be relied upon by a significant portion of the global population to meet daily energy needs. Therefore, the government must take swift action to address these issues, by promoting the deployment of renewable energy sources in schools. Keywords: energy, knowledge, renewable energy, engineering education, South Africa 1. Introduction The high dependence on burning fossil fuels in various sectors of the world's energy systems has led most researchers and experts in developed and developing countries to accept that the world's current energy systems are not sustainable (Ewim et al., 2022). According to Zyadin et al. (2012), this is due to the high energy demand caused by improved living standards and urbanisation, especially in some developing countries and poor regions. In addition to this, pollution like