From: Jack Dempsey Subject: Solar Farm letter ready to go In the interest of keeping an open dialogue with our neighbors, I would like to inform you that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is pursuing the development of a 28.5-acre solar farm on the campus’s South Farms. The attached fact sheet describes the details of the project, including specifics of the proposal, expected timeline, and frequently asked questions about solar farms. This information will be sent to the residents on First Street near the proposed site, with the attached letter. I’m also including the full RFP here in case you are interested. This is expected to go live tomorrow. If you have any questions or suggestions as we move forward with this project, please contact Morgan Johnston, our Sustainability Coordinator copied here. Thanks, Jack RFP and subsequent amendments are online at http://www.procure.stateuniv.state.il.us/dsp_notice.cfm?Uni=UIUC&PN=1KSP....

Battery Recycling program containers were ordered in late February. The official launch of this program will be mid-spring.

Staff answered questions from DCEO about the FSCRAP grant, in cooperation with University Grants and Contracts.  Additionally, staff provided detailed responses to inquiries from students about the status of the project.

Staff met with representatives from the Red Bison registered student organization about the prairie at the corner of Florida Avenue and Orchard Street.  Red Bison has taken on responsibility for that prairie, and is looking into naming options, signage, and enhanced plantings.

F&S Planning is working on formalization of the “no-new space” policy as recommended in the iCAP. 

Continued contract renewal work for the University and MTD three-year contract form FY13-FY15.  The students approved recommended transportation fees which will be forwarded to the Board of Trustees this spring. 

Staff held weekly conference calls with Zipcar about promoting car-sharing on campus, and provided input to the University of Iowa and Eastern Illinois University regarding their car sharing plans.

Staff worked with CATS agencies about the MTD Very Small Starts project which could potentially lead to funding for complete streets in the University District on White Street, Wright Street, Green Street, and Armory Avenue.

Two electric vehicle charging stations were installed for Fleet vehicles at the Garage and Car Pool facility.  This was done in conjunction with the purchase of two Chevy Volts for the campus fleet.  At this time, the charging stations are not accessible to the public.

Bike to Work Day (BTWD) planning is underway. Staff raised $1,250 in February from sponsors, which goes to Champaign County Bikes for the event.  Three on-campus Bike Station locations were organized, in addition to several off-campus Bike Stations.  University Housing graciously agreed to provide food and drinks for the on-campus Bike Stations, as they did last year.

The Bike Sharing key staff members met with project champion, Mike Lyon from AITS, to provide a status update on the bike sharing feasibility study.  The bike sharing intern developed a presentation about departmental bike sharing, which will be taken to Legal Counsel and Purchasing contacts for final approval.  Then Colleges will be contacted before departments are approached to encourage departmental bike sharing implementation.  

F&S Planning staff interviewed firms to engineer road improvements, including Fourth Street bike lanes from Armory Avenue to Kirby Avenue, and Sixth Street bike lanes from Armory Avenue to Gregory Drive.

The bike parking intern completed and submitted a proposal to the SSC to replace existing “donut-hole” racks with campus standard racks.  He also met with staff at Christopher Hall and the Illini Union about upgrading their bike parking areas.  Additionally, staff worked with a representative from Champaign County Bikes to arrange a pilot test of an alternative bike parking rack, the Varsity Rack.

The Campus Area Transportation Study (CATS) agencies met in February and agreed that the Campus Bike Plan document should be for University-owned pathways, and it should be in agreement with the City of Urbana Bike Plan, the Champaign Transportation Plan, and the County Greenways and Trails Plan.

The Campus Bike Project submitted a proposal to the SSC for expanded open hours with student assistants.

Plans are underway for a bike race on May 5 in the Research Park.  About 300-400 race participants are anticipated.  There will be a community ride that morning, as well as a race in the City of Urbana on May 6.

Staff further developed the Energy Management and Control Center (EMC^2) proposal for Chancellor Wise to share with potential donors/partners.  This process included preliminary documentation of the existing energy distribution and tracking computer programs.

F&S staff started discussions about a steam reduction project at the Main Library, which includes repairing steam traps, replacing Pressure Reducing Valves (PRV), and repairing or replacing other valves.

F&S is moving towards virtualization for their IT servers.  That will let F&S move to a single server, which will reduce the cooling load and energy demand.  This project can be replicated in other departments for additional energy savings.

The proposed Solar Farm was taken through the formal Site Selection process for campus, and approved by the Chancellor’s Capital Review Committee (CCRC).  Then the Request for Proposal (RFP) was published and over 30 vendors downloaded the RFP.  A Fact Sheet and Q&A were sent with introductory letters to the community leaders and Solar Farm site neighbors on First Street.

Krannert Center for Performing Arts worked with F&S Planning to initiate a solar energy project for their building.  Funding will be requested from the Student Sustainability Committee this spring, and a DCEO grant will be requested after the initial conceptualization phase is complete.

The Illinois Biodiesel Initiative met with staff to discuss their plans for the near future.  They will be working with Housing Dining Services to create and sell soap from the byproduct of their biodiesel production. 

On February 16, CCNet hosted Angela Adams, the Recycling Coordinator at the City of Champaign, to explain the proposed bag ban in the city; Pattsi Petrie, a Champaign County Board Member, to discuss local foods; Mike Monson, the Urbana Chief of Staff, to explain the Electrical Aggregation proposal; and Marya Ryan, from the Urbana Sustainability Advisory Commission to review the City of Urbana’s Climate Action Plan.

Staff facilitated meetings with students and staff about potential letters of support for the City of Champaign Single Use Disposable Paper and Plastic Bags study item.

In an effort to standardize emissions calculations throughout the community and county, staff met with transportation planners from the Regional Planning Commission to share information about calculating transportation emissions.

Staff assisted the Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS) to plan and prepare for Earth Week this April 16-20.  Events range from showing a movie on the Quad to Cycling Savvy bike education to a sustainability Expo in the Illini Union.

The SSC Weatherization student leader met with the Building Maintenance team at F&S to review the student team reports for the small houses they assessed last fall.  Building Maintenance will develop cost estimates for the identified needs, so the students can prioritize the available funding ($50,000 from F&S).

F&S worked with the College of Business’ Director of Information Management to provide detailed solar data from the Business Instructional Facility to a graduate student in ECE.

A team of MBA students in Madhu Viswanathan’s course worked with the Campus Bike Project to make recommendations about how the Campus Bike Project could become financially self-supporting.

Scholarship of Sustainability 10-part series began.

The Engineering 315, Learning in the Community UI Bikes (UIB) section submitted their project proposal for what the class will be working on this semester.  The UIB class has divided into three groups which will tackle three different bicycle-related projects this semester: 1.) the continuation of the bike sharing market analysis started last semester, including a campus-wide survey and several targeted focus groups; 2) the development of an online, interactive campus bicycle parking map using Google Maps; and 3) testing out various marketing tactics to encourage bike riders to park their bikes legally at designated bike parking, rather than on trees, signs, ramps, or fences.

Staff continued working with the Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (MSTE) on the sustainability portal.  The portal will host a database of the iCAP/sustainability projects for campus, with searchable details about the projects, people, funding, and metrics.

Staff met with Inside Illinois to develop an article about campus sustainability.  The article is online at http://news.illinois.edu/ii/12/0301/sustainability.html.

The Alumni Magazine included a story about being a Bronze Level Bicycle Friendly University.

Abbott Power Plant was granted an IEPA permit to co-fire biomass with coal until June 30, 2013.  F&S intends to do some test burns this spring with wood chips.  Wood chips have a good track record in stoker boilers, and we are fairly confident we can demonstrate a successful trial.  In addition, wood chips appear to be one of the most cost effective sources of biomass available at this time.

The Energy Dashboard Project will be a highlighted project at the Behavior Change/ Energy Efficiency Conference.

Illinois Energy Dashboard project, collaboration with the Environmental Change Institute (ECI), Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) and the Department of Facilities and Services (F & S).

This project has been in the works for over a year, with a commitment to provide clearly visible, usable and understandable information to students and staff of chosen University buildings about energy consumption (electrical, chilled water and steam).  We are working with InStep Software, Inc., the University of Illinois vendor for the management and predictive analytics software for energy use on campus.   We are now in Phase One of implementation, the design of the look and content of our public Energy Dashboard site, testing and the public launching of the first version of the Ilini Energy dashboard (Phase two will support the installation of real time meters in about 10 – 12 builings).

This is one in many of the continuing efforts across campus to pull together and unify the significant educational (and research) efforts of departments and Colleges in reducing negative human impact and enhancing sustainability locally, nationally and globally. 

This project is intended to have a threefold effect:

·         Provide real time information to develop awareness and cultural/behavioral changes in how energy is used (not only in the buildings featured but in all aspects of life).

·         Provide information for faculty and students in research.

·         Provide details for building staff to better use resources and energy, and make plans for building adaption in ways that may decrease usage over time.