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Renewable Energy on Campus May 2007 |
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Welcome to the First Edition of Member Headlines
Other Headlines |
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ACORE Welcomes New Members ACORE and the Higher Education Committee are pleased to welcome new member institutions Auburn University and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Auburn University President, Dr. Ed Richardson has appointed Larry Fillmer to the HEC. Mr. Fillmer is the Executive Director of the Natural Resources Management & Development Institute which also encompasses the Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts as well as the Water Resources Center, located at Auburn University. Chancellor James Moeser of NC-Chapel Hill appoints Raymond DuBose to the Committee. Mr. DuBose is the Director of the University’s Energy Services Department and a long-time leader in the area of district energy technologies, including serving as president of the IDEA. Mr. DuBose manages the operation of the University’s main campus utilities systems and is leading the effort to explore fuel alternatives for the present coal and natural gas, including biomass and animal waste methane. In addition, he is leading the University’s energy planning for its new 1000 acre Carolina North campus, where we are seeking to utilize 100% alternative energy sources in our energy production. He also serves as an advisor to the student-led Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee. UC-Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau Appoints
Filling the vacancy created by Dr. Paul Ludden's departure from UC-Berkeley (to serve as Provost at SMU), Berkeley Chancellor, Dr. Robert Birgeneau has appointed Dr. Dan Kammen to the HEC Steering Committee. Dr. Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at Berkeley (RAEL: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael). His work is highly interdisciplinary, and includes technical, economic, social, policy, and environmental analysis and activism of energy production and use. His focus is on renewable energy, energy policy, and development. Dr. Kammen was a featured speaker at ACORE's national policy conference in Washington, DC in November 2006, and ACORE is honored to welcome him to the Higher Education Committee. Sustainable Energy Fellowship During it’s first Annual Meeting in conjunction with POWER-GEN Renewable Energy & Fuels in Las Vegas in March, members of the ACORE Higher Education Committee discussed ideas for development of renewable-energy-specific programs to promote the optimum adoption of clean energy. As a result of this collaboration, HEC Steering Committee members - distinguished faculty from Arizona State University, Cornell University, Duke University as well as the University of Michigan - have come together to offer a unique educational and research experience, designed for students to address the global need for the use of energy reduction designs supplemented by renewable energy technologies. The program is designed for upper division undergraduates and graduate students early in their program. After a competitive nationwide application process, 29 students were selected to attend the program which will take place during the week of July 21-28, 2007 at Arizona State University. During the one-week intensive program, students and faculty will come together in an informal setting to explore the role of renewable energy in the context of sustainable development. Each day will focus on a specific sustainable energy topic with students being provided a detailed fundamental understanding of the scientific and engineering principles behind the technology as well as a hand-on opportunity to examine the technology at working energy generation facilities in the Phoenix area. Students will be exposed to research and education in energy production, conversion, storage and sources that are environmentally friendly and renewable - such as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal technologies. Energy reduction programs and materials, carbon sequestration, economics and policy will also be covered. Led by Drs. Jay Golden of Arizona State University, Larry Walker of Cornell University, Lincoln Pratson of Duke University, and Andrew Hoffman of the University of Michigan, leading practitioners from industry, government and non-governmental agencies will supplement the learning experience by providing divergent points of view and technical expertise. The program is expected to expand into a two-week program in 2008, and each subsequent year. The Sustainable Energy Fellowship program is supported by ACORE and funded by generous contributions from the Salt River Project. If you are interested in providing additional funding/sponsorship, planning support, or participation as a speaker, please contact Dr. Jay Golden at Arizona State, or Cheri Olf at ACORE. Learn more at www.TeachEnergy.org. Cornell and Rutgers Win MTV Award ACORE member institution Cornell University, and Rutgers University are the winners of MTV's Break the Addiction Final Exam - which challenged college student groups across the country to submit evidence of educational activities as well as policy advocacy to reduce their school's global warming pollution. Cornell and Rutgers will receive an MTV eco-renovation for their student centers, a prize worth up to $10,000 for each school, and a special appearance on the MTV network. This challenge partnered thinkMTV with the Campus Climate Challenge, a project of 30 leading environmental and social justice organizations that work with hundreds of high schools and colleges to assist them in their efforts to make their schools greener. Cornell University student group KyotoNOW! launched their Beyond Kyoto! campaign, which set out to make Cornell climate neutral. Their efforts included a 4,700 student 91 faculty member-signed petition, demanding a carbon neutral campus. In addition to encouraging the university's President to sign the President's Climate Commitment, vowing to reduce the campus's emissions to zero, the group of 15 students was able to pass a referendum for a $5 per semester increase on the university's student fees to go towards renewable energy. They also helped enact a week of awareness and action called Feel the Heat, including a day of service, educational events, a rally, film screenings and a lobby day at the state capital. Emory University Bus Fleet Thanks to the idea and persistence of 2006 graduate Erik Fyfe, ACORE member institution Emory University in Georgia is using biofuel made from raw materials cooked up in the fry vats of local restaurants - and the University’s own kitchens - to fuel much of Emory’s bus fleet. There’s little worry about a fuel shortage: Emory dining services alone produce about 5,500 gallons of used oil every month.
The new biodiesel program is based on Fyfe’s senior honors thesis. His research analyzed the potential for a community-based biodiesel production program using a model developed by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE). Last month, with the introduction of the new fuel, Emory reached a milestone in its effort to reduce the amount of fossil fuel it uses. Of the 58 Cliff shuttles (Emory's shuttle bus network which provides transportation alternatives for students, workers and members of the Atlanta-area community), 24 are using a biodiesel blend, being made from waste cooking oil gathered from Emory's kitchens. The remainder of the fleet is fueled by either compressed natural gas or electricity: Emory’s bus fleet is now 100 percent alternatively fueled. Mount Wachusett Community College Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC) of Massachusetts has been selected as a National Wildlife Federation "Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming" contest winner. The competition recognizes colleges and universities which are implementing innovative programs to reduce the impact of global warming. Judges selected MWCC as “one of the top four colleges and universities in the US for its dramatic shift from fossil fuel based electricity to a locally based renewable source of biomass fuel.” The National Wildlife Federation noted that this prestigious award was given The college’s conversion of its all-electrical campus to a heating system run on locally available bio-fuels has drastically reduced greenhouse gas emissions while having a positive impact on the college’s operating budget. By eliminating electricity as a primary heat source, MWCC has reduced electricity use by 45.9 percent and saved $2 million. Read the full MWCC press release HERE Follow this link to view videos of the winning colleges, including MWCC Biomass Plant Coming to the The University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM) will break new “green energy” ground by constructing a biomass gasification reactor and facility on campus during the summer of 2007. The reactor, located near UMM’s current heating plant, will convert corn stalks and other residual materials into a syngas - similar to natural gas - which can be burned to produce clean energy to generate heat (and cooling in the near future) for the campus. The facility will serve as a platform for UMM’s research partners to identify trade-offs and opportunities surrounding gasifying other agricultural residues. The intended impact of the gasifier is to offset more than 80 percent of UMM’s heating and cooling needs currently met by fossil fuels, like natural gas and fuel oil. By replacing a majority of its traditional fuel mix, UMM will lessen its impact on global warming and provide new revenue streams for area agricultural producers. Along with the University of Minnesota West Central Research and Outreach Center (WCROC), UMM will investigate answers to tough questions like the pros and cons of producing biomass energy with agricultural residue or dedicated energy crops, such as mixed prairie grasses. The biomass facility is an important step toward integrating renewable energy technology into rural settings and understanding what a biomass energy economy will look like in the future. The gasifier is one more step toward UMM’s goal of reaching energy self-sufficiency by 2010s. UMM, and partners like the West Central Research and Outreach Center and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service - North Central Soil Conservation Research Lab, are working hard to make Morris a destination for the people of the state of Minnesota, our region and the world who want to learn more about a future that will be less dependent on foreign sources of energy. UMM has advanced sustainable, environmentally friendly initiatives since the original Earth Day. Since 2000, these efforts have grown to levels of national leadership and now touch nearly all aspects of campus life. UMM has been cited for its environmental leadership by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability (AASHE), the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) and the President’s Climate Commitment Leadership Circle. To learn more about UMM’s green campus initiatives, visit www.morris.umn.edu/greencampus. Furman University Seniors Two Furman University seniors have been awarded Mentor Fellowships from the Compton Foundation of California that will allow them to pursue year-long projects related to the environment following graduation. Colin Hagan of Tyler, TX, and Kartikeya Singh of Greenville, both of whom will graduate from Furman June 2, have received fellowships worth $36,000 each. The one-year fellowships will begin in mid-June when the Compton Foundation Mentor Fellows meet in the San Francisco area. ACORE member Furman University of South Carolina is one of nine schools nationwide invited to compete in the prestigious and innovative Compton Mentor Fellowship program, which supports graduating seniors as they “transform their academic studies into real world applications.” The fellowship program, which was started in 2002, has traditionally been focused in the areas of environment and sustainability, peace and conflict resolution, or population and reproductive health. This year, the Foundation added a focus on climate change and energy policy. For more information, visit www.comptonmentorfellowship.org. Other Headlines Illinois State University to Offer Illinois State University is poised to become first in the state to offer a degree in renewable energy. The university's Board of Trustees this week approved a new bachelor's degree program in Renewable Energy, which will include a technical sequence and an economics and public policy sequence. The degree is a multi-disciplinary undergraduate major that provides a broad overview of renewable energy industries. The program includes an overview of solar, geothermal, and hydroelectric power, and concentrations in wind and ethanol power. The degree will be administered by the Department of Technology, but will draw from existing courses in the Agriculture, Economics, Health Sciences, Geography-Geology, Mathematics, Politics and Government, and Physics departments. The program will add one new faculty position and 40 majors are anticipated to enroll by the fourth year of the program. Support for the program will initially come from a US Department of Energy grant, and department resources will be used for long-term program support. BioBus Journeys Towards a Sustainable Future
BioTour's BioBus makes a stop at ACORE's D.C. Headquarters Taking renewable energy on the road in a vegetable oil-powered school bus equipped with solar panels, BioTour educates communities across America about global warming, peak oil and sustainable solutions. BioTour makes interactive presentations at colleges and universities across the US. Multimedia productions put environmental issues into context, providing a background on the science of global warming and the economics of peak oil. Read the full article HERE , or visit www.BioTour.org for more information or to host BioTour at your campus. _______________________________________________________________ Be part of the ACORE Higher Education Community If you are interested in sharing your renewable energy news with fellow HEC Members, please send items to Cheri Olf at |
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