Steven Fischback

June 6, 2007

English 145

Professor Marx

Expanding the Use of Renewable Energy

With the rise in price of oil and natural gas, and the new knowledge of environmental repercussions from heavy use of fossil fuels, renewable energy has become an important component of sustainability. Renewable energy is receiving energy from a limitless source, a source that will not deplete. Some of the inexhaustible resources include water, wind, plant biomass, solar rays, and geothermal energy. Along with renewable energy, cutting down on the use of electricity also contributes to sustainability. Becoming a strong user and developer of renewable energy should be a goal of Cal Poly. If Cal Poly wants to be a leader toward a sustainable society, then it has to expand on its existing efforts to make use of renewable energy.

There are many different methods to produce energy from a renewable source. Constructing a wind turbine or an entire farm of wind turbines is one of them. Wind turbines gather the wind’s kinetic energy as wind flows over three shaped blades. This causes lift which permits the blades to turn. These blades are connected to a drive shaft that operates an electric generator resulting in the production of electricity (U.S. Department of Energy). Wind turbines are generally located on the tops of round hills, open plains, mountain gaps, and shorelines. Cal Poly possesses 10,000 acres of land and a lot of this land meets the criteria for where a wind farm should be located. Energy from wind accounts for less than one percent of the United States total energy supply as of now. Yet, The United States has set the energy target for wind energy at 20% by the year 2020. This is a lofty goal but it shows that wind energy is going to play a more prominent role in the future. Adding a wind farm on the land managed by Cal Poly could produce enough electricity to meet all of Cal Poly’s needs. And by doing so, Cal Poly would be a more visible participant in making sustainability a priority.

Energy from the sun is another renewable source of energy. Photovoltaic arrays and parabolic troughs capture energy from the sun. A solar panel is made up of many photovoltaic cells. When light hits the photovoltaic cells, some of the energy of the light is absorbed within a semiconductor material such as silicon. Electrons are knocked loose and then are guided in the same direction because of a built-in electric field. This stream of electrons becomes a current, and when metal contacts are placed within the photovoltaic cell, the current can be withdrawn. While energy from the sun is free, these photovoltaic systems are not. They currently cost about nine dollars per watt (Aldous, Scott). This would mean that an average residential home would need a $32,000 system. It is expensive but it is clean and the costs are continuing to fall as more research is being done. There is a lot of potential for solar energy on the campus of Cal Poly because where ever the sun shines solar energy can be created.

Geothermal energy is renewable and would really reduce energy consumption when it comes to heating and cooling buildings. Geothermal heat pumps transfer heat from soil that is deep down a well to a building during the winter and in the summer heat is transferred from the building to the soil. This transfer is made possible by an environmentally safe heat exchanging fluid that is similar to antifreeze. According to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, geothermal heat pumps can reduce the energy demands on HVAC systems by 25-50% (Apollo Alliance).

Cal Poly has started to become a more energy efficient university. In December of 2006, solar panels were installed on the roof of the Engineering West building. This photovoltaic energy system can generate roughly enough power to run 20 homes per year. This is quite a small percentage of Cal Poly’s total energy needs, but it is a step in the right direction. Cal Poly received a Pollution Reduction Award from the San Luis County Air Pollution Control Division for this project (Biennial Progress Report 2006). Cal Poly has other plans to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels. An example is the Poly Canyon Village Housing Complex that will open in 2008-2009. It will include a co-generation plant that will be capable of producing enough electricity on site to meet all the hot water needs of this 2700 bed complex (Biennial Progress Report 2006). In this co-generation plant, excess steam from burning natural gas is used to power a steam turbine connected to an electrical generator (Scott, Thomas). Therefore, the excess energy in the steam is harnessed and can be put to other uses. This not only saves money but keeps the excess steam from being released it the air.

The California State University system, CSU, is also making many efforts to use renewable energy. The CSU system has set a goal of a 15% reduction of energy by 2010. Along with this goal, the CSU system is aiming for no less than 20% of its total energy consumed to come from renewable sources by the year 2010. Already contracts for electrical purchases require the provider to employ at least 17% from renewable sources such as wind, solar, and water. The CSU system has begun purchasing 34,000 Megawatt hours worth of renewable energy from 86% wind energy and 14% landfill gas. In all, the CSU policies will save 80,000 tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere by 2010 (Biennial Progress Report 2006).

The CSU system is also aiming to generate 50 megawatts of power on campuses system-wide by the year 2014. The capability of generating energy on a campus has many benefits. It will reduce the energy bill, decrease fuel consumption, allow direct supply of energy into buildings, and if the university can produce enough energy then it can even sell a quantity of the surplus back to the utility companies for a profit (Biennial Progress Report 2006).

While purchasing renewable energy and using it is certainly contributing to the sustainability movement, Louis Tornatsky, the Industrial Technology Chair at Cal Poly, believes Cal Poly is obligated to also become a developer if it wants to be a leader in this area of sustainability. In his opinion, Cal Poly should take the next step and get involved with researching and developing renewable energy technology. Cal Poly is not known as a research university, while schools such as Stanford and UCLA are. The budgets for research at these schools are very different. Total support for research at Cal Poly during the fiscal year of 2005-2006 was almost 20 million dollars. However, Stanford spends nearly 400 million dollars a year (Tornatsky). In Tornatsky’s opinion, “It is just a whole different environment and culture.” Cal Poly puts high importance on undergraduate education; there is not much time to research. If Cal Poly were to start getting involved in more than just using renewable energy, they could go after patents which would in turn allow it to have complete control of the technologies it develops. But this would be particularly hard for Cal Poly. It has no track record of using renewable energy or developing technology so it would be difficult to bring in the required funds. Cal Poly would have to show a higher level of commitment to it first before they could gather grants that are currently being received by other schools.

Cal Poly is making progress toward utilizing more renewable energy and decreasing its energy use. But they are definitely not a leader when it comes to renewable energy. There is a lot of potential on the campus of Cal Poly to utilize energy from the sun or wind or soil, but as of now, not much has been done. Five campuses already use 100% renewable energy and more than 80 colleges are currently purchasing 500,000 megawatt hours a year from sources that utilize renewable energy (Apollo Alliance). Commitment by universities to use renewable energy is evident. The CSU system is without a doubt contributing through the goals and policies it has set. And even though Cal Poly is not leading the charge, it has taken steps in the right direction.

Bibliography

Aldous, Scott. How Solar Cells Work. May 24, 2007. http://www.howstuffworks.com/solar-cell1.htm

Apollo Alliance. New Energy for Campuses. May 23, 2007. http://www.energyaction.net/documents/new_energy.pdf

Biennial Progress Report 2006. Sustainability at Cal Poly. May 24, 2007. http://www.facilities.calpoly.edu/campusprojects/projects/sustainability/SusInd06.pdf

Cal Poly, Learn by Doing. Research. May 16, 2007. May 24, 2007 http://www.calpoly.edu/research.html

Personal Interview with Louis Tornatsky, Industrial Technology Chair at Cal Poly. May 28, 2007.

Scott, Thomas. Power Transmission. Prentice Hall Inc, New Jersey. 2000

U.S. Department of Energy. How Does a Wind Turbine Work? September 9, 2004. May 22, 2007. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/wind_animation.html