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Allen E. Wilson from Rockwell Financial Group reached out to inform F&S that there has been a complete outage request form filed by Jeff Isaacs to shut down Solar Farm 1.0 on 8/23/2021 at 7:30 AM CDT for preventative maintenance on the site's switchgear. This is a dedicated line going from Solar Farm 1.0 to distribution center 10 directly so costumers will not be affected by this outage.
CCNet co-hosted the Solar Urbana-Champaign power hour and shared the benefits of joining the CCNet with the people who signed up for the Solar Power Hour.
RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the July 2021 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totaling 685.4 Megawatt hours. See attached file.
Kane County Department of Environment and Water Resources, Management Coordinator, Ivy Klee reached out to get some information about solar panels. Specifically, they are proposing a solar project that is across some residential homes. The residents of those houses have growing concerns about living across from an eight acre solar field due to potential radiation. Ivy wants to know if this is a legitimate concern and if there is any research on this subject. Professor and Director at the Grainger Center of Electric Machinery and Electromechanics, Philip Klein, explained that any electromagnetic radiation stems from inverters and wiring, not from the panels themselves. Certified residential inverters must meet FCC Class B limits (similarly to air conditioners and other residential appliances). The only potential concern is communications interference which has only been an issue when solar farms have been installed very close to aircraft navigation radars or military radars. For more information visit: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/67440.pdf.
Other information was shared regarding solar PV by Mechanical Engineering Emeritus Professor, Ty Newell:
-As homes electrify (heat pumps for comfort conditioning, heat pumps for water heating and heat pumps for clothes drying), along with EVs (Electric Vehicles), all solar energy (including wind) converted to electricity for powering our homes, buildings and vehicles is released back into the environment at exactly the same amount that was temporarily diverted to keep our food preserved, buildings comfortable, and providing transportation....unlike fossil (stored solar energy) that is an additional release of energy to the environment (along with a lot of other stuff)
-Every dollar removed from fossil fuel related electricity production creates 10 times more jobs in manufacturing and construction for building heat pumps, constructing solar and wind fields, and improving our buildings (~0.2to 0.3jobs per million$ of revenue for fossil fuel industry, similar to investment banks and health insurance companies versus 2-4jobs per million$ of revenue for jobs in manufacturing and construction...Fortune 500 data)
-Improving home and building efficiency will create a surplus of electric energy for a seamless transition to EV transportation
-EVs require about 200square feet of solar array (size of a garage car space) for 10-12,000 miles of driving per year
-The coal industry employs fewer people (less than 8000) in Illinois than the Univ of Illinois graduate each year.....clean energy and sustainable living technologies will provide those jobs
On August 12, 2021, the Illinois Geothermal Coalition hosted it's third webinar in the Geothermal Illinois Series.
The program, Geothermal Illinois: Community Models, discussed (1) decarbonization of the energy sector with a focus on the challenge of decarbonizing commercial and residential heating, (2) geothermal energy at the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District’s Administration Facility and converting a public sector commercial building to geothermal energy, and (3) the process of designing and implementing the community-based education and group purchasing program Geothermal Urbana Champaign.
These topics were covered by the following presenters:
See the recording of the webinar and slide decks:
Additionally, the complete materials from all 3 Geothermal Illinois sessions are available for viewing:
Thank you to those who participated in the Geothermal Illinois webinar on 7/29! Many thanks to our presenters, Dr. Tugce Baser, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; John Freitag, Executive Director, Geothermal Alliance of Illinois; and Dr. Yu-Feng Forrest Lin, Director of Illinois Water Resources Center; Principal Research Hydrogeologist, Prairie Research Institute.
As promised, slides are available for download here, and a recording can be found here.
Other helpful links shared during the program:
Please join us on August 10 and August 12 for geothermal webinars that will give us a closer look at campus projects and community models.
For more information, please contact:
Nancy Esarey Ouedraogo
Extension State Specialist, Community and Economic Development
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS EXTENSION
https://extension.illinois.edu/
905 S Goodwin Ave
557 Bevier Hall MC 184
Urbana, IL 61801
esarey@illinois.edu
217-244-7020
ECEB solar panels have been generating power since April 2020. Building energy use is offset by the ECEB solar panel production and, since February when a contract between F&S and ECE has been in place, the excess energy use not offset by the ECEB solar panels is being replaced through solar renewable energy credits (SRECS) from Solar Farm2. These credits are being paid for by the ECE Power and Energy group.
YOU are invited to iSEE's monthly TED Talk: Eco-Edition series discussion. Tomorrow (Tuesday), July 27 at 5:30 PM, Paul Foote, F&S Energy Efficiency and Conservation Specialist, will host the event and lead the July discussion on energy conservation. We will view a pre-recorded TED Talk , "The four things you need to know about the energy you use", followed by a guided discussion and roundtable. All are welcome to this (fun!) Zoom event, and I hope to see you there! Register here.
Additionally on the topic of sustainable energy, this summer the University of Illinois Extension is hosting a series of free and online webinars on the topic of geothermal energy. There are three upcoming sessions at noon on the following dates (click the links to learn more and register): July 29 (Geothermal Energy in Illinois), on August 10 (Campus Case Study, highlighting ten existing campus geothermal projects), and August 12 (Community Case Study).
There are many events in the coming weeks to keep you energized and engaged!
From: McKelvey, Michael L
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2021 10:10 AM
To: White, Morgan
Subject: ECE building energy dashboards
Hi Morgan,
You may already be aware of this, but I wanted to let you know that, after corresponding with Aaron Mason and Ian Bonadeo at Hawkeye Energy Solutions since you put us in contact back in April, the ECE building’s energy dashboards are now available without requiring a login and via domain name rather than IP address! Here are the dashboards:
ECE Building – Energy Dashboard
ECE Building – Net Zero Energy Dashboard
You can view the listing of dashboards currently available at the U of I Building Energy Dashboard Home Page.
They’re now ready to be linked from the appropriate iCAP Portal entries!
--Michael--
============== Michael McKelvey ===============
Office for Mathematics, Science, & Technology Education
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(217) 244-7148
============ mmckelve at illinois.edu ============
To combat the issue of food waste, U of I Housing collaborated with F&S Utilities & Energy Services, Operations, Maintenance & Alterations, and environmental compliance. The committee researched various food waste options, including composting, pulpers, and grinder systems used for anaerobic digestion -- including Grind2Energy systems.
These operate similarly to an industrial garbage disposal. However, it uses significantly less water than the digester system, up to 90-95 percent less. Additionally, it does not send the waste directly to the sanitary sewer. The food waste is pumped into a 5000-6000 gallon tank located on the outside of the building it serves. A tanker truck empties the waste and takes it to the local sanitary district. The industrial-strength waste is processed in an anaerobic digester, where it undergoes treatment without oxygen. The methane produced is collected and used to generate electricity at the treatment plant.
Read more about Grind2Energy use on campus through the F&S Website or the PDF in the attached files!
The SSC approved $700 in funding for this project at Illinois in Fall 2020. This project expires 12/16/2022.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is helping to promote and encourage participation in the Solar Urbana-Champaign program.
The successful Solar Urbana-Champaign group purchasing program is available again in 2018. Since 2016, the program led to the installation of over 1 megawatt of solar on 138 properties across Champaign County. The program educated hundreds of individuals about solar and helped people save on solar through volume purchasing.
In 2018 the program expands eligibility to Piatt County residents as well. And, thanks to new state legislation, even more people can get access to solar. To increase awareness across Champaign and Piatt Counties, Midwest Renewable Energy Association partnered with Champaign-based Prairie Rivers Network, which champions clean, healthy rivers and lakes and safe drinking water to benefit the people and wildlife of Illinois.
Discover Magazine released an article highlighting the biodiversity benefits that can stem from pairing solar farms with pollinator-friendly plants. Supporting its claims with initiatives from universities across the country, the article recognizes the University of Illinois' pollinator habitat at Solar Farm 2.0.
Read the article on Discover Magazine. Or, refer to the PDF of the article in the attached files.
The News-Gazette printed this story about the geothermal at the Campus Instructional Facility: https://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/university-illinois/renewable-en...
"URBANA — The University of Illinois’ glossy new building at Springfield Avenue and Wright Street represents the next step in its sustainability goals.
The four-story, 122,000- square-foot, $75 million Campus Instructional Facility is also the biggest geothermal installation on the UI campus.
Its geothermal system can pump 135 tons of hot or cool air into the building. That’s twice as much as the next biggest geothermal system on campus, and about 30 times the amount pumped into an average home.
“The whole world knows about solar and wind power and things like that — hydroelectric power, too — but that’s only the electric side of energy. Energy also includes heating and cooling,” said Morgan White, director of sustainability at UI Facilities & Services. “It’s truly transformative, because it’s moving into the phase of getting us clean thermal energy and not just clean electricity.”
Electricity provides heating and cooling as well, she said, but it’s primarily provided by natural gas, propane and other nonrenewable sources of energy.
The key to the geothermal endeavor? Forty boreholes dug into the Bardeen Quad next to Grainger Library. They’re 20 feet apart, 6 inches wide and drilled 450 feet deep.
Initially, the project required 60 boreholes, but UI researchers reduced that figure — and made the system financially feasible — by checking the thermal conductivity of different rock and soil layers, or the rate that heat passes through them, while considering the depth and flow rate of groundwater.
To keep the building temperate year-round, a mixture of water and glycol circulates from a heat pump in the mechanical room into a pipe that runs up and down the underground field of boreholes.
In winter, the pump pulls heat from the ground into the building. In summer, heat is pumped from the building back into the ground.
“It’s like when you have a bathtub that’s a little too hot or a little too cold, and you pour some water in and stir it up,” White said.
In all, the system reduces the building’s energy consumption by 65 percent compared to a typical heating/cooling installation, saving about $45,000 per year.
Student initiatives helped fund the state-of-the-art thermal system. The 18-member Student Sustainability Committee, funded by the annual “Green Fee” assessed on students, allocated $375,000 — or about 13 percent of the system’s cost — to the facility’s geothermal installation.
The building has a number of other unique features. It contains two dozen new classrooms — one of the highest figures on campus — replete with active-learning and distance-learning spaces. In the fall, engineering courses will occupy most of the space, along with math, statistics and other technical classes.
The facility is also the first UI building funded through a public-private partnership, which allows for tax-exempt financing.
Meanwhile, faculty and graduate students will use temperature information from a 385-foot-deep monitoring well, funded by Facilities & Services and the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment, for continued research opportunities.
As part of the Illinois Climate Action Plan, the university plans to get to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Currently, around 12 percent of electricity is provided by renewable sources, like the solar and wind farms near campus, White said. But only 4.5 percent of the UI’s total energy use, counting thermal, comes from renewable sources.
“Clean electricity is important, but it’s not enough,” White said.
In the planning stages, the UI wasn’t supposed to start implementing geothermal systems until 2035, but a suggestion by Yu-Feng Forrest Lin of the Prairie Research Institute jump-started that process."
The site was seeded on 6/4/2021.
For June, CCNet has arranged and sponsored a tour at Allerton Park & Retreat Center. This tour will take place on Friday, June 25th at 3:00 PM CDT. As mentioned in their monthly newsletter:
Join us on a tour of Allerton!
We will be meeting near the outside patio of Greenhouse Cafe at Allerton Park & Retreat Center. During this tour, Derek Peterson, the Director of Allerton, will show us clean energy installations at the center and we will visit the compost toilet funded by the Student Sustainability Committee. The Clivus Multrum compost toilet system is installed at the park’s Schroth Trailhead, providing park volunteers, trail-hikers, and other visitors the ability to use the restroom in an environmentally sustainable and convenient manner without needing to travel all the way to the Visitor Center to do so.
Afterward, all are more than welcome to continue your visit to Allerton or join us for a quick bite at 3 Ravens in Monticello, IL!
Please note that coordinated transportation will not be provided for this event. If you would like to drive to the event, parking is available at multiple locations around the park.
Learn More About Planning Your Visit (Parking & Accessibility)
Last week, an IGSHPA Town Hall event was held to discuss district geothermal.
Perhaps there should be a standard developed for solar on buildings with monitoring and connectivity requirements. trouble shooting issues could go to a service contract to handle or there could be a work order for the F&S electricians. We should certainly train the campus electricians on everything that needs to happen for maintaining solar systems, or get a standing service contract.
F&S submitted the Spring 2021 Semesterly Report to the SSC for the Solar Farm 2.0 Landscape Buffer project!
Read the report in the attached files below.
F&S provided the attached files to Kerry Shanebrook, the Grounds Superintendent at Taylor University, in regards to pollinator plants under solar arrays.
