Powered by the sun
Installed on top of the EMU, three
8 ft by 8 ft solar panels will supply 4,200 watts of power annually, enough to power approximately
28 fridges a year. The panels will channel their power into the EMU’s electrical grid.
The cost of the panels will be approximately $20,000, and will be subsidized by Bucks for Ducks.
The vision of an EMU partially powered by renewable solar energy
— which began last year when two architecture students won the $100,000 ASUO Bucks for Ducks contest — is close to becoming a reality.
A trio of solar towers, designed by contest winner Jocelyn Eisenberg and other students from the Ecological Design Center, could be built on the little-used, south-facing EMU balcony adjacent to the Skylight Lounge as soon as this month. The EMU Board approved the project last month and construction on the towers is tentatively scheduled to begin during the annual H.O.P.E.S. Eco-Design Arts Conference, which will be held at the University April 18 to 22.
The ASUO sponsored the Ducks for Bucks contest last year to generate student ideas on how to spend $100,000 from the overrealized fund.
Eisenberg and Ben Gates, who has since graduated, had the winning idea of using the money to install solar panels on the EMU.
The towers will produce about 4,200 watts of power annually — enough to run 28 refrigerators for a year, said Eugene Water and Electric Board energy management specialist Don Spiek, who has been working on the project with students in the Ecological Design Center.
“Solar power is clean, there’s no maintenance to it. It’s available everywhere,” which makes it a good source of renewable energy, Spiek said.
Although the solar towers on the EMU will produce a relatively small amount of power, Eisenberg said she hopes the high-visibility of the towers will catch the attention of passersby and spark their interest in renewable energy.
The towers will also make the balcony more functional. Underneath the 8-by-8 solar panels atop each tower will be square wooden benches where people can sit and enjoy the view of campus from the balcony, she said.
Eisenberg said the towers are “designed to be sculptures in the landscape” that mesh well with the EMU architecture.
“We’re really trying to make it educational and also artistic,” she said.
The total cost of the towers is expected to be roughly $20,000, Eisenberg said.
Students working on the project hoped to raise enough money through corporate sponsorship to build a much larger array of solar panels. But despite a request package that includes letters from University President Dave Frohnmayer, Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey, and U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, as well as a 35 percent tax credit for Oregon businesses, they have not yet been able to secure corporate sponsorship for the project,
Eisenberg said.
There have been other obstacles for the team to overcome as well. Originally, they favored placing the panels on the large, south-facing roof of the EMU Ballroom, but they later discovered the roof couldn’t support the additional weight.
The location they chose instead, the south balcony, receives ample sun exposure but with a surface area of only about 1,000 square feet, it is too small to support the 10- to 20-kilowatt solar panel system students had hoped to build. The balcony is also in need of repairs which have been put off because of lack of funding.
To avoid delaying the project indefinitely until repairs could be completed, they designed the towers so that they can be easily dismantled and moved to another location if needed, Eisenberg said.
“We’ve had to create a fairly simple design,” she said.
Eisenberg said they are still actively pursuing corporate sponsorship and hope to find a business that will match student funding for the next phase of the project. In phase two, she said they plan to install a much larger, 20-kilowatt array of solar panels on the EMU rooftop and set up an educational kiosk inside the EMU about renewable energy. One site being considered for the rooftop panels is the Emerald roof in the northwest corner of the building.
ASUO President Nilda Brooklyn, Vice President Joy Nair and ASUO Ducks for Bucks contest selection committee member Peter Watts did not return messages by press time.