Spotlight on Green Schools
Schools are focusing more and more heavily on cutting back on the energy they use and trying to reduce their impact on the environment. The articles on these pages spotlight individual campus energy conservation programs, energy initiatives, solar installations, energy-related technology, HVAC, research, grants, policy, and other topics related to green campuses.
The University of California, San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering has received a software donation, worth $150,000, from Power Analytics.
The University of Houston is developing a ventilation optimization program to improve air quality and energy efficiency in its new health and biomedical science center.
Harvard University has achieved its 50th LEED certification as part of an institution-wide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 30 percent below 2006 levels by 2016.
The University of Minnesota's Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment has awarded $4.1 million to 20 energy projects.
A flexible thin-film solar array and monitoring system has been installed on the rooftop of the University of Notre Dame's Fitzpatrick Hall of Engineering at no cost to the university.
A car that achieved a fuel efficiency of nearly 82 miles per gallon gasoline equivalent helped a team of students from Virginia Tech University take top honors during the final rounds of the three-year EcoCAR Challenge competition last month.
Butte College in Oroville, CA said it has made history this week by becoming the first institution in the United States to go "grid positive." The Northern California college, which has about 14,000 students, now generates more electricity from its solar arrays than it consumes and will deliver power back to the electric grid.
Texas A&M and Siemens have entered a $15.1 million performance contract guaranteed to save the university $1.1 million dollars in annual energy and operational costs.
BenQ will release the MX850UST, an energy-efficient DLP projector with a contrast ratio of 13,000:1, this August.
A California college has shaved $650,000 off of its energy expenses with a few strategic moves, including solar panels that double as cover for parking and Web-based software for micromanaging lighting and mechanical energy use.
The University of South Carolina's Computer Science and Engineering department is experimenting with software that micro-manages energy use on PCs. The result has been savings of up to 38 percent.
Using solar power generation, recycled materials, and a water-efficient sewage system, Stanford University's new Knight Management Center will achieve a LEED Platinum rating for environmental sustainability, according to information released by the school.
A community college in Kansas is slashing its energy bills with a $2.7 million infrastructure overhaul. Utilizing energy performance contracting and a tax-exempt financing program, upfront costs for the overhaul have been practically nil, while savings are "growing exponentially" all over the campus.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has completed building upgrades that will save the school an estimated $620,000 in energy costs per year.
American University is installing more than 2,300 solar panels to build the largest urban solar hot water system on the East Coast.