All, Fairly slow week even with the “warmer” weather. Had our first fix-a-flat class for the semester but no takers, unfortunately.

This week I’ll finish up the Bike Center history piece for marketing and have a training scheduled with a new staffer on Thursday evening. I’ll pick up some more bikes as well since we’ve worked through all the bikes in the shop, already. We’ve exceeded designated capacity for bikes already but the more we build, the more we can sell when it gets warm—hopefully.

The numbers:
Visitors: 12
Sales: $208
Memberships: 4 for $120
Misc: $52.50
Tire/tubes: 3 for $22

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager

The iWG met on 2-25-21 to discuss the Energy 004, Energy 005, and Resilience 002 iCAP team recommendations. Meeting minutes are attached.

Below are data sets provided by Scott Tess and Lacey Rains Lowe to assist the student work on environmental vulnerability assessments in spring 2021. 

• Champaign County Regional Planning Commission
  • CUUATS, which has local transportation data.  The nice thing about CCRPC is that communities throughout the county are members, so they can provide you with data sets that are more comprehensive
  • https://ccrpc.org/programs/planning/
  • https://ccrpc.org/programs/transportation/
• Other information, such as food insecurity and shelter availability is going to come from outside sources.  One good place to start is the ALICE report from the Champaign County United Way.  https://www.uwayhelps.org/blog/fight-for-ALICE  
• United Way helps fund a lot of local social service programs and can point you in the right direction to getting the most up-to-date information.  With the pandemic, a lot of that info is skewed.  So if you're looking at 2019 data, just know that the reality is worse in 2020/2021, unfortunately
• Champaign County GIS Consortium (Address 1776 East Washington Street, POD 400, Urbana, Illinois 61802), Phone 217.819.3555  phone, email ccgisc@co.champaign.il.us
• Champaign County Climate Resilience Task Force: Initial Efforts https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/files/projectupdate/5172/Initial%20Indicators%20of%20Resilience.pdf

All, Last week’s weather was brutal and thus, very slow for us.

We made it through the bikes I picked up at the warehouse a week prior. A couple good ones and couple damaged-beyond-repair ones. Par for the course. Denver, a new volunteer, visited one day last week and worked his way through fixing up a bike. We got a couple bikes donated and then fixed up for the KBG (Kids Bike Giveaway)—can’t start too early! Some engineering students came in looking for parts for a class project to make some kind of small wheeled conveyance that moves like an inchworm? Something like that. Next time that happens, I’m giving out my contact info so they can follow up with the finished project—would be cool to have a collection of school projects that we helped out with.
This week I’ve got some student staff interviews and new hire trainings to arrange, TBP meeting, NIRSA virtual conference, and will pick up more bikes. Saturday is going to break 50 degrees so maybe we’ll sell some bikes. The longer term forecast is trending warmer so we’ll see how that affects visit numbers.

The numbers:

Visitors: 5
Sales: $109

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager

Renewable energy at the UI "How much power is each of the renewable (University of Illinois) sources generating? How many houses can each provide power for? Are there plans to add more than what we currently have? How many years does it take for the cost of each to be paid off? We have a growing interest in this and many homes now also have this."

Morgan White, the UI's associate director of Facilities & Services for sustainability, has all your answers.

As for power generation, she said that the UI's "on-campus solar arrays are now capable of producing over 25,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) per year and we purchase an additional 25,000 MWh/year from an off-campus wind farm in Illinois.

"For a more comprehensive answer:

"The (Illinois Climate Action Plan) 2020, objective 2.3.1 is: 'Use at least 140,000 MWh/year of clean power by FY25.' This objective is about clean power, which is different from clean thermal energy. As of 2020, there are three types of clean power options being pursued or used on campus.

"1. Solar Energy on Campus: installing solar photovoltaic panels on campus property

"2. Wind Energy on Campus: installing wind turbine generators on campus property

"3. Power Purchase Agreements for Clean Energy: purchasing solar or wind power from off-campus

"FYI, Solar Farm 2.0 is projected to produce 20,000,000 kWh/year. It began production at the end of January, so there will only be 5 of 12 months production in the FY21 totals (this current fiscal year)."

As for the number of houses each can provide power for, White said, "At Facilities & Services, we use the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) for the average power use in an American home. It currently says, 'In 2019, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,649 kilowatthours (kWh).”

"Thus, the FY20 clean power use on campus (30,635,993 kWh) was the equivalent of the power needed for 2,876 houses. Once Solar Farm 2.0 is operating for an entire year, that will be about 50,000,000 kWh/year of clean power use on campus, which is the equivalent to the power needed for 4,717 houses."

And about whether more generation will be added, she said: "The recently released Illinois Climate Action Plan 2020 (iCAP 2020) includes a goal for increasing clean power use to 140,000 MWh/year by FY25. We are currently having internal discussions at the University of Illinois about initiating a large off-campus solar power purchase agreement to meet this goal. We are also continuing to pursue clean thermal energy solutions, such as geothermal. Additionally, large construction projects on campus are required by the state law to be LEED certified, and this will often entail the addition of clean energy systems for individual buildings."

The payback period for each of these systems varies widely due to several factors, she said.

"For example, the geothermal system for the Campus Instructional Facility is projected to pay for itself in 28 years, while Solar Farm 2.0 is saving money in year one," said White. "For local projects off-campus these programs are very helpful: the Solar Urbana-Champaign program typically finds solar installations to pay for themselves in six or seven years, and the Geothermal Urbana-Champaign program typically finds a geothermal system at a residential home can pay for itself within 10 years."

https://www.news-gazette.com/toms-mailbag/toms-mailbag-feb-12-2021/artic...