From: Phil deHaan (dehp@calvin.edu)
Date: Tue Mar 25 2003 - 16:20:43 EST
March 25, 2003 == MEDIA ADVISORY
As part of their senior engineering design project at Calvin, a team of four
engineering majors is taking on what people familiar with Grand Rapids weather
might think to be an impossible task: creating solar energy for the school's
campus.
But both the quartet of students and the Michigan Energy department are
resolute in their belief that exploring solar energy makes sense for Calvin.
In fact, the Michigan Energy department gave the students a $6,000 grant to
help fund the project.
So far the four seniors - Jamie Overweg of Zeeland, Ryan Johnson of Grand
Haven, Darren DeRonde of Willmar, Minn., and Matt Dykhouse of Port Lambton,
Ont. - are optimistic about their project. Their goal is relatively modest.
They want to install eight panels of about 30 by 60 inches each on the roof of
the Calvin Engineering Building and generate enough power for a 1.2 kilowatt
system.
For the senior design project banquet, slated for May 10, the team hopes to
have their system power a demonstration home office. But eventually the plan
is to install their effort on the roof of the Calvin Engineering Building and
have it power an e-mail station in the building. Students who use the station
in the future would likely also see a plaque nearby noting that they were
checking e-mail thanks to solar energy.
The project began with design planning, selecting and feasibility studies
during the first semester. The students then moved on to logistics and buying
parts. Now they're planning for installation of the panels and testing. Most
of the parts have arrived and will be tested and assembled the week of March
24.
The students note that research into solar energy is taking off at a national
level. And that their work will provide valuable training and hands-on
experience in a field that they describe as "really starting to ramp up."
They admit too that talk of war and questions about U.S. dependence on foreign
oil add even more fuel to the race to find alternative energy sources. They
note that both British Petroleum and Shell Oil are currently producing solar
panels.
But what about the long local winters and that disturbing lack of sunshine
between November and April?
The students are non-plussed by that challenge. In fact they say that though
it's an issue, and that Grand Rapids is "not ideal" for solar energy, the
positive is that solar panels are more efficient in cold weather than hot.
They are designing their system based on the realities of West Michigan weather
however. They plan to have the panels mounted at the peak of the Engineering
Building and will include a light sensor that will tilt the panels to follow
the sun. Their system also will concentrate significant resources on storage
and back-up energy capabilities for those stretches when the sun doesn't appear
too often in the winter sky!
"We are designing for worst-case scenarios," says Johnson with a smile.
See http://engr.calvin.edu/SeniorDesign/justaddsun/index.htm
NOTE TO MEDIA: To contact the team send an e-mail to justaddsun@calvin.edu
Also, the team meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for their senior design
class from 11:30-12:30 pm. On Wednesdays and Fridays they work on their
project in the Calvin Engineering Building. Media are invited to drop in.
-end-
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