The Rock in Rio "Solar School” is a social initiative of the Rock in Rio Lisbon Festival. It's a national contest for public schools in Portugal to present environmental and social projects that would benefit their communities. Among the 1,000 schools that participated, 20 were winners of the contest “Rock in Rio Solar School”, for which they received a prize of a solar energy system. Now, the solar energy caught by the solar panels at each winning school is sold to the public energy network, being turned into a fountain of financing for social projects for the next 15 to 20 years. In addition to this prize, 1,000 students are selected to be taken to the Festival.

In 2007, prior to launching the project “Rock in Rio Solar Schools”, it was announced widely that the principal stage of the Festival (Stage World) would be fed by plates of solar energy. From this piece of news, the idea spread and a project was begun called “Rock in Rio Solar Schools”. Since only one public school of each region would receive the solar panels as a prize for the best entry for their region, interest in the competition was at a high generating spontaneous media in many countries about not only the competition but also for the festival. The winning schools began to receive the solar panels they had won prior to the close of the Festival, and afterwards another 20,000 schools had these installed. PR tools we used included press conferences, press releases and interviews.

The Rock in Rio Solar School’s project generated 600 articles in Portuguese media, equating to approximately €2.5 million.The project raised approximately €100,000 for new social projects. It also left a legacy to the Rock in Rio brand of at least 15 years, the same time the solar energy systems last.