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Project Updates for collection: Student Sustainability Committee Funded Projects

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  1. Energy002 Building Envelope - Successful

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP Working Group (iWG)
    Energy iCAP Team Recommendations Summary
    Energy iCAP Team
    Building Envelope Pilot Project

    Morgan White, Associate Director of F&S for Sustainability, responded to Dr. Ximing Cai with the following email. See the attached file for an overview of the building envelope testing pilot project.

    ===

    Hi Ximing,

    Thank you for sharing the Energy002 SWATeam recommendation. As we discussed, F&S is pleased to move forward with this recommendation to do a Building Envelopes Pilot Project on campus.  We have submitted a request to the Student Sustainability Committee, seeking their support to run this pilot project.  We are also meeting with Bill Rose, the co-chair of the iCAP Energy Team, and several F&S team members to discuss first steps.  I’ve attached a project overview here, which we can share with the iCAP Working Group.

    Thanks,

    Morgan

    ====

    See transmittal of Energy002 Building Envelope to F&S here. 
    See iWG assessment of Energy002 Building Envelope here.
    See recommendation and submittal of Energy002 Building Envelope here. 

    For additional progress on this effort, see Building Envelope Pilot Project. 

     

    Attached Files: 

  3. Weekly Update: Refurbished bike swap, low numbers, signage

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All,

    Another week in the books! It’s definitely still an adjustment to be open only by-appointment. We’re still getting phone calls and emails about user error and whatnot when scheduling and we’re only seeing 4 or so people per day. But hey, it’s a pandemic. People are still going to the old shop—some internet search engines are not up-to-date but we do have signage over there. Ironies of all ironies since people couldn’t seem to find that tucked-away garage before and are now flocking to it, it seems.

     

    Had a refurb-swap of a loose cranked bike. Thankfully the gentleman wasn’t injured in the failure. He took a different same-priced bike. He was very understanding and that was appreciated.

    Still working on upping our staffing levels to a comfortable number.

    We’ve only done a handful of bike registrations, which either speaks to the cost-as-deterrence or that people are picking them up elsewhere. Hopefully the latter!

    Still optimizing the layout and functionality of our new space but everyone who’s visited that was familiar with the old space has been blown away by the across-the-board improvements. I discovered a closet here that I didn’t know existed which now is storing the Bikes at Work trailer and the smaller kid-sized one. Aquaham Lincoln will likely migrate over here this week.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 21
    Sales: $562.70
    Memberships: 3 for $90
    Bikes: 3 for $360
    Tires/tubes: 1 for $1

     

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  4. Weekly Update: First week open, Light the Night

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All,

    Last week was our first full week of being open since the pandemic-induced shutdown. We are by-appointment only and making do with that. Visits, sales, and the like are—compared to normal—way down for this time of year.

    We also had Light The Night last week and hosted one of the sites here at the Bike Center. It wasn’t as great a turnout as hoped but it was a new location for LTN and it’s a pandemic. We weren’t able to do our normal word-of-mouth publicity during open hours to the degree we’re accustomed. Thankfully we got some signage up at the old garage alerting people to our new location.

     

    This week we’ll work on optimizing the scheduling system, staff meetings, and safety checking a handful of bikes.

    Visitors: 38
    Sales: $951.50
    Memberships: 1 for $30
    Bikes (refurb): 5 for $790
    Tires/tubes: 3 for $27

     

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  5. Senior project about Deep Direct Use (DDU) geothermal

    Associated Project(s): 
    Geothermal on Campus
    Independent Student Projects

    Lauren Kumle, Tess Sobol, Jaboc Heglund, and Tommy Robey in CEE 493 - Sustainable Design Engineering Technology worked with Dr. Andy Stumpf in Fall 2020 on a Deep Direct Use (DDU) geothermal proposal for north campus.

    Dr. Stumpf provided this information to the team in September:

    If your team is interested, you might consider a different technology for geothermal energy at Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory. Specifically a deep direct-use (DDU) geothermal energy system (GES). I suggest this because I am not certain there is enough ground space at Newmark for a geothermal borefield like at CIF. The advantages of DDU GES is it requires fewer wells, and there would be enough thermal energy extracted to condition space in multiple buildings. Essentially, the DDU GES comprises extraction and injection wells (likely 2 of each needed) to access geothermal fluids (brine) from deeper bedrock formations. Under campus, one of the potential bedrock formations, the St. Peter Sandstone, lies at ~2,000 feet depth and contains an abundant amount of fluid at 78-82°F. When I last talked to Professor Liang Liu (who recently retired from College of Engineering), he was very interested in a study for DDU GES for the Engineering quad (south of Grainger library). So I think your findings from this type of system would be timely and more likely to be implemented.

     

    My colleagues and I just completed a feasibility study of DDU GES for six agricultural research facilities on the South Farms (see summary paper attached).

    The focus was on the deeper Mt. Simon Sandstone (lying at >6000 feet depth) because we were interested in extracting the hottest brine (110-130°F) since some of the farms needed to make hot water. They are not connected to the steam and hot/cold water energy system servicing the main part of campus, so propane and natural gas are the primary fuels. However, the St. Peter Sandstone would be an alternative… and this formation is also being considered for cooling buildings.

     

    If you are interested in looking at DDU for the Newmark site, I can share the report with you. It should contain much of the information you need. Some of colleagues can help you with the life cycle costs and mechanical energy system analyses. Completing this project would also help researchers on campus compete for funding from DOE to complete tests wells which will be needed to validate your findings. DOE is very interested in developing DDU GES in non-volcanic areas of the US, especially for district-energy systems. Cornell University just received funding from DOE for a test well to develop a DDU GES on their campus, but they will most likely have to drill >15,000 feet into the Precambrian granite develop the system. They are looking to generate electricity with very hot water. https://eos.org/science-updates/exploring-by-boring-geothermal-wells-as-research-tools.

     

    Doing a rough calculation, I think constructing a DDU GES would be of similar cost to a shallow borefield with 50-100 wells. The DDU GES would be much more efficient since you are directly using the heated brine and not trying to conduct heat in the ground. The payback period would be much quicker since it will be servicing more than one building.

     On 9/25/2020, Lauren, Tommy, and Jacob met with Dr. Stumpf.  He provided the following update:

    I had a meeting with Lauren Jacob and Tommy today about their design project. I suggested they look at a DDU system that would heat/cool 4 buildings (Newmark, DCL, Uni High, and Siebel Center). I guess the number of buildings will depend on the amount of energy that can be extracted from the geothermal reservoir. I also suggested they look at the shallowest reservoir, the St. Peter Sandstone. As part of their analysis, they indicated there is a need for building level energy use data.

  6. Solar Farm 2.0 construction update from Sushanth Girini at F&S

    Associated Project(s): 
    Solar Farm 2.0

    The Solar Farm 2.0 construction is on schedule to be in service by 1/28/2021. Currently the project is installing approximately 4,400 posts in ground for the panel foundations. One of key objectives is to complete the Golden Row* by end of this month. Once the golden row is completed, inspected, and approved, the construction will be in full force to reach completion. The university is scheduled to perform routine inspections and capture all the underground equipment GPS points for reference. A recycling plan is in place, and the project is coordinating with F&S Transportation to collect the recyclable waste. The installation of a utility switch on the east side of the farm is complete.

    Procurement: We have received all the racking equipment and about 80% of the solar panel on site. Transformers and inverters are scheduled to be delivered by end of Oct 2020.

    ~by Sushanth Girini, management engineer at F&S Utilities and Energy Services

     

    * Golden Row - is a single row of solar panel constructed by the construction crew. Once the project make sure all the connections are good and row is as per design, it gets approved. It's like a start of what's coming. Like a movie trailer!

  8. eweek announcement

    Associated Project(s): 
    Vision Zero

    Campus Safety Study: Focus Group for Vision Zero (UIUC)

    As part of Vision Zero study, a survey was sent out to collect data about problematic locations within campus. To collect further data and gain insights, we are conducting a focus group. Please fill out this form if you are interested in attending the focus group. The focus group would be held over zoom and would be an hour long. The link to the zoom meeting will be sent in a later email. 

    Jacob Mathew • Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    baseline_wifi_black_18dp.png This opportunity is available online.

  9. Revolving Loan Fund: FY2020 Project Selection Results

    Associated Project(s): 
    Revolving Loan Fund (RLF)
    Centralized Energy Efficiency Efforts
    Retrocommissioning (RCx)
    LED Campus

    7 projects were approved during the FY2020 Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) project selection. At this time, final scoring results were determined as well. F&S will be beginning these projects soon and will start assessing their correlated utility savings.

    Due to COVID-19, the voting process was conducted via email as opposed to meeting in person. As a result of the success in the virtual voting process, future selections are planned to occur in a similar fashion.

    Attached Files: 

  13. F&S announcement and Press Release: U of I Joins National Bicycle Registration System

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Registration

    On September 1, 2020, the Facilities & Services Communications team published and announcement on the F&S website about the transition of UIUC's old bicycle registration system to a national bike registration system through Project 529. The announcement can be found here: https://fs.illinois.edu/resources/newsroom/2020/09/01/u-of-i-joins-natio...

    The F&S Communication team also sent out the press release for this change on September 1 evening. A pdf of this press release is also attached.

    Attached Files: 

  14. Lawn Signs

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Registration

    The Lawn Signs were approved by Kristin McMurray on September 1, 2020. The Lawn Signs will be placed at 15 pre-determined locations on-campus from September 17th to October 17th.

    The work order was approved to create the Lawn Signs on August 31, 2020 (WO #10811593).

    Attached Files: 

  15. Site visit with ISU VR Tour creators

    Associated Project(s): 
    Solar Farm 2.0
    ISEIF grants
    Solar Farm 1.0

    Sol Systems and F&S hosted visitors from Illinois State University today, to initiate development of a Virtual Reality tour of Solar Farm 2.0. The intention is to develop a walking path that will be repeated by the camerawoman at four key timeframes this fall: post installation, tracker installation, module installation, and electrical installation.

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