Calvin News

This semester, students in four different classes (three engineering, one physics) were confronted with a big assignment: design a solar farm for Calvin University.

On Tuesday, December 10, 2024, the team presented a summary of their findings and their recommendation to their client, Calvin’s CFO Dirk Pruis, during a public event in the Covenant Fine Arts Center’s Recital Hall.

The recommendation, which will cost less than $4 million in upfront investment, includes 
adding solar panels to roofs of Van Noord Arena, Venema Aquatic Center, DeVos Communications Center, Prince Conference Center, Hekman Library, and Hiemenga Hall. It also includes ground installations at the Lake Drive entrance and near the Seminary. The solar farm would eliminate about 10% of Calvin’s CO2 emissions from electricity consumption (and about 5% of the university’s total CO2 emissions). The internal rate of return for the investment would be approximately seven percent per year.

“I think this is very compelling, to say I can take less than $4 million of the endowment and lock in a seven-percent return for the life of the solar panels,” said Pruis. “Most investors, given today’s elevated equity market valuations and lower expected returns in the medium term as a result, would say, ‘yeah, I’d lock in seven percent in a heartbeat.’”

Valuing both the financial and environmental impact

While Pruis is clearly interested in the numbers, what impressed students most was his equal concern for Calvin’s other commitments, and that came through throughout the semester as Pruis listened to progress reports and offered feedback.

“I’m really impressed by Calvin’s commitment to sustainability,” said Nick Heuker, a senior engineering major (mechanical concentration). “I presented on the financial side of things and that’s really where I was thinking, but Dirk came back with questions like ‘what’s our carbon offset look like? How can we reach our sustainability goals regardless of what makes the most financial sense?’”

Learning along the way

While the students gained a deeper appreciation for the professors and administrators who entrusted them with such a large project and they now know far more about solar panels and everything that goes along with installing them, they say their greatest takeaway from the project was learning soft skills that will translate to any job, any career, and all of life.

“When we first started this project, it was hectic,” said Heuker. “We didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t have any structure.”

“We definitely began without a full understanding or grasp of what the project would look like at the end of it,” said Rory Marco, a senior engineering major (mechanical concentration).

The classes would be divided into smaller teams, and each began digging into various aspects of the project. But while they thought this would move them to a solution faster, it also presented its own challenges.

“During our first in-class progress report presentation time, everyone had different templates, everyone spoke on different pieces of information. There was a lot of duplicate work being done,” said Marco.

Discovering a sustainable path forward

“We had to establish lines of communication, and it was a struggle,” said Heuker.

So, prior to the second in-class presentation, a small group of students stepped up and led efforts to get communication lines better established. “I think that really helped our project,” said Heuker. “It gave us a lot more guidance and made us work much more effectively together.”

In the process, the classes learned how to work smarter and not harder, not trying to reinvent the wheel, but instead seeking out existing expertise and data.

“It was all about talking to the right people to make sure we got the right information,” said Aiden Ehmann, a senior engineering major (mechanical concentration). “It’s really easy to be sat learning in a class where you are taking notes, but here we had to actively seek to learn what we needed to learn.”

Intentionally designed project

According to Matt Heun, who has been architecting these kinds of projects for 20-plus years, all of this is part of the pedagogical design. And this year he says having four different classes across multiple disciplines work together on a project of this magnitude only enhanced the learning opportunities for students.

“The beauty of this kind of project is that neither students nor professors know where it will lead! That can be scary, but it can also be invigorating,” said Heun. “I wish you could see our students transform as I do from September to December. In September, they are filled with uncertainty and insecurity. However, throughout the semester, they work together toward the common goal of building a sustainable future. By December, they see that their work can make our campus more sustainable. By December, they fill me with hope for the future!”

The attendees on December 10 witnessed a rich and polished presentation. But to get to that point, students needed to develop skills that will serve them into their careers and for the rest of their life.

“I think a lot of unknowns and chaos earlier in the semester has come to harmony at the end of the semester,” said Ehmann.