July 2008 IssuE
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS
Student-Led Project Captures Energy-TV Award
Calgary students building a solar home for an international competition have won an Energy-TV award and a donation of solar panels. The Alberta Solar Decathlon Project, which involves students, faculty and staff from the University of Calgary, SAIT Polytechnic and Mount Royal College, received the Energy-TV Award for Top Alternative Energy Project at the second annual awards celebration.
The three Calgary post-secondary schools are the first-ever all Western Canadian team to be selected for the prestigious, international Solar Decathlon competition in the fall of 2009.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, 20 university and college teams chosen from around the world will design, build and operate their completely solar-powered homes on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The event typically draws more than 120,000 people and widespread media coverage.
“This Energy-TV award shows that our student-led project is making a difference in Alberta and beyond,” said Matt Beck, project manager and a graduate student in the U of C’s Faculty of Environmental Design. “We are grateful for all our champions in industry, government and education, and we hope to do them proud with our solar home in Washington next fall.”
Project chair Mark Blackwell is a Haskayne School of Business undergraduate and the president of the students’ association for the U of C’s Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy. He said: “This award represents all the hard work and dedication that our team has put into this project.
“It also shows the power of the collaboration by Calgary’s leading post-secondary schools.”
Chris Lashmar, a mechanical engi-neering student at the Schulich School of Engineering at U of C, is the technology team leader for the project.
During the Energy-TV awards show, the Alberta Solar Decathlon team was surprised by an announcement by Tim Montpetit, vice-president of business development for Menova Energy Inc. The company, in conjunction with Power Panel Inc. and Energy-TV, will donate solar panels for the team’s solar home.
The Ottawa-based company makes a high-efficiency “solar concentrator” system that can be configured for electricity, heat, cooling and lighting applications. The Alberta team looks forward to working with Menova on seeing how best to incorporate its technology into the 800-square-foot solar home, Mr. Beck said.
The Energy-TV awards show was broadcast as a one-hour television special on Global TV across Canada, last month and early this month.
Also in late June but after deadline for The PEGG, the project team unveiled its new design for its competition solar home and its Calgary construction site, and announced several new major energy industry and other sponsors of the project in the community.