College of Engineering pushes boundaries of sustainability, green design
September 15, 2006
University Park, Pa. -- Finding sustainable solutions that provide energy while preserving the environment is the focus of major initiatives by students and faculty in the College of Engineering.
David Riley, director of the Center for Sustainability and professor of architectural engineering, and students from the Solar Decathlon team outlined some of the University's sustainability efforts at the Board of Trustees meeting today (Sept. 15).
"As an institution, Penn State has set aggressive goals to reduce greenhouse emissions, to improve the energy efficiency of its buildings and to purchase green power," Riley said.
In addition to research efforts into solar energy and biofuels, Riley discussed the Center for Sustainability, a research laboratory established by students and faculty in 1996. The center's eight-acre site is located off Porter Road and focuses on solar and wind power, green building methods, water conservation and food security.
Students at the center also have the opportunity for hands-on work, including building a greenhouse, experimental homestead and portable solar array.
That know-how will be used in the upcoming Solar Decathlon, an international collegiate event sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.
According to Andreas Phelps, a member of the Penn State team and graduate student in architectural engineering, the contest challenges teams to design, build and operate a completely solar-powered home.
Twenty teams of college engineering students will spend more than a year building 800-square-foot homes for the Solar Decathlon with an emphasis on the use of building-integrated photovoltaics. The students will raise funds, plan, design, build and improve their concept homes. Each team also begins the competition with a two-year, $100,000 grant from the Department of Energy.
Participating American universities include Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgia Tech, M.I.T. and the University of Texas, as well as institutions from Germany, Spain, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Penn State will field an interdisciplinary team, led by faculty members in architectural engineering, engineering design, architecture, kinesiology and physics. More than 650 students have been involved with the Solar Decathlon through class projects, student organizations and design competitions.
Danielle Rivera, team member and undergraduate student in architecture, said the University's concept is dubbed Morning Star and blends advanced energy technologies with environmentally friendly green building materials. The design also draws on a partnership between Penn State and the Northern Cheyenne tribe that seeks alternative housing solutions for Native American tribes. This partnership, called the American Indian Housing Initiative, is also the focus of a popular course at Penn State in which students travel to the Northern Cheyenne reservation each summer to construct homes and community facilities.
All of the entries will head to Washington, D.C., in September 2007 and be set up on the National Mall. Visitors to the "solar village" will have the opportunity to learn strategies on cutting their consumption of fossil fuels and lowering their utility bills. For the 2002 and 2005 competitions, hundreds of thousands visited the solar village.
The entries will be judged on architecture, market viability, documentation, communications, comfort, powering appliances, heating water, lighting and energy balance. Judges will look to see how well these concepts perform as actual homes, including turning on the lights, cooking, washing clothes, powering home electronics and maintaining a comfortable temperature. The homes must also provide enough energy to power an electric car.
The Penn State team is forming partnerships with several businesses, including Lowe's, Sears, Sunrise Homes and AccuWeather, to help develop their design and competition strategies.
The two previous Solar Decathlons received a great deal of media attention. They were featured on the CBS Evening News, Today on NBC, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Popular Mechanics, National Public Radio, DIY Network, HGTV, This Old House and The New York Times TV/Discovery.
Though the competition ends next October, Penn State's Morning Star concept will live on. The solar home will return to campus for use as an experimental student residence and laboratory at the Center for Sustainability.
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More information on the Center for Sustainability can be found at http://www.engr.psu.edu/cfs online. More on Penn State's Solar Decathlon team can be found at http://www.solar.psu.edu online.
Contact
Curtis Chan
cchan@engr.psu.edu
814-865-5544