Dr. Mohamed Attalla, the Executive Director of Facilities and Services, recently spoke on the Solar Podcast about the progress made at the University of Illinois in regards to green energy with the addition of Solar Farm 2.0.  Dr. Mohamed Attalla was alongside Pedro De La Barra, the Project Manager for Sol Systems, as they discussed the working relationship between the University and those at Sol Systems. Solar Farm 2.0 is expected to be producing solar energy in early 2021. 

Please see the link below to listen to this podcast!

https://fs.illinois.edu/resources/newsroom/2020/10/28/podcast-dr.-attalla-joins-the-solar-podcast

All,

Pretty slow week. Had the iCAP sustainability celebration on Tuesday, which was great. Always fun to see/hear from other parts of campus that are working towards a better future for our campus. On the flipside, I had the displeasure of reporting a dangerous F&S driver that same day and then a dangerous MTD driver on Thursday.

Todd came by and cleared out scrap on Friday which was welcomed.

As of this morning, I communicated with Working Bikes that we will not be doing our annual abandoned bike donation as Parking did not collect bikes last spring, due to COVID, and thus we have no bikes to donate to them. It hasn’t been decided/communicated whether Parking will collect later in the fall/winter or wait until spring. This will also negatively affect how many bikes we’ll have for sale next spring, as the pool of available bikes is lower. But of course, most of the abandoned bikes were being donated and for sale numbers were always more dependent on our ability/time to build more than a dearth of bikes.

The numbers:
Visitors: 11 (7 UIUC-affiliated)
Sales: $225
Memberships: 4 for $120
Misc parts: 8 for $55

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager

The TRT User Manual based on Energy Farm is now available via two campus links:

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/107820

https://isgs.illinois.edu/publications/c603

Sarthak Prasad met with Shayna Talpallikar to discuss her proposal to promote bicycle registration on campus. Bicycle Registraiton has been mandatory for years, as explained in the University Bicycle Ordinance, and the university should promote it more like that. There is a new national registration system, with a one-time $10 registration fee, and it is available to all - students, faculty, staff, alumni (in C-U area), departmental bicycles, as well as the residents of Urbana, Champaign, Savoy, or any other Champaign County residents.

Shayna expressed interest in helping us out with this project and how we can achieve it. We discussed two main ideas, and thought adding signage to major bicycle parking areas to be the best option right now. Another option was to have Bicycle Registration days or events across campus where we give out free donuts and raffle option to those who register. However, this idea was discouraged due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please see attached some notes from the meeting. A recording of the meeting is also available.

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, solar power is the fastest-growing energy source in the U.S. and this growth will continue to rise. At the moment, only a few states have adopted solar PV end-of-life handling policies. Thus, a lot of modules may end up in landfills. The panel discussion will be on barriers, policies, and sustainable opportunities for end-of-life PV modules.

Sustainable Issues and Opportunities for Handling End-of-Life PV Modules

October 22, 9:30–11 am

Jennifer Martin • Illinois Sustainable Technology Center

 This opportunity is available online.

Attached are the meeting minutes and chat from the Zero Waste SWATeam meeting on 10/16.

Discussed were the following topics:

Reducing Food Waste

• Post-consumer food waste prevention
• Post-consumer food waste recovery

Vending Machine Alternatives to Single-use plastics

Plastic Recovery

Single Use Plastics

Illini Union Shadowbox attachment

Food Literacy Project

All,

Last week I had an epiphany that we should probably have a sign on the door that lists our hours, even if they are appointment only. That’s in the works, should be ready tomorrow.

With the decrease in testing for grad/staff we’ve had to turn a few people away for not being up-to-date. They have, by and large, been totally understanding. A few people have emailed and canceled ahead of time, which is welcomed.

Set up a secondary pegboard in the shop to better organize freewheel/cassette tools—it’s a vast improvement over the drawer and/or coffee can we’d been using before. Last week I grabbed the scrap metal bin, some miscellaneous parts, and Aquaham Lincoln. He’ll live atop the fridge.

This week I’ll coordinate with Parking to pick up a few bikes—only space for 3 or so—for instructional/teaching purposes with the new hires, schedule a staff meeting for my team, finalize placement for wheel hooks around the shop to increase storage.

The numbers:

Visitors: 12
Sales: $747
Memberships: 4 for $120
Refurb bike: 2 for $430
Tire/tubes: 10 for $57

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager