2008 Woodie Awards
Going back to solar power
Grant allows engineering building to renew panels
Rivkela Brodsky
Issue date: 5/4/06 Section: News
Mammoli and Vorobieff had been talking about repairing the solar panel system on the building since 2000.
"We both thought this was too cool to leave," Mammoli said.
Mammoli spent some time in Italy a couple years ago studying passive solar energy and natural heating and cooling. When he came back, he was inspired to get the system on the mechanical engineering building working again.
He said he was just looking for a source of funding to do it.
Then, they discovered a grant last summer for energy conservation offered by the state, called the Clean Energy Grant Program.
The grant will help them purchase materials, as well as provide some funding for student salaries and salaries for Mammoli and Vorobieff.
"A lot of credit should go to the state," he said. "The state is way ahead of the federal level - they (the federal level) say pretty things about renewing energy, but they cut funding to zero."
As of Tuesday, 88 solar panels still lay in the basement of the building, unused.
Mammoli and Vorobieff will be placing them on the roof of the building and are purchasing about 40 more panels.
They also plan on refurbishing water storage tanks and getting another pumping system placed in the basement of the building. The current system uses one pump. Two pumps will be used to keep the system running and keep the water in the panels from freezing at night. They will be using only water in the panels so the roof will not be damaged if the panels break.
"We're designing a few fail-safe methods," Mammoli said.
The system will cool and heat the building using two cycles - one in the summer and one in the winter.
During the winter, water is heated in the panels and stored, which heats the building. During the summer, hot water from the panels circulates to absorption chillers, which cool the water. That water can be stored or used directly in cooling the building. They can also use electric air conditioners in the building to cool water at night when energy costs are lower. This water can be stored for cooling the building during the day.
"We both thought this was too cool to leave," Mammoli said.
Mammoli spent some time in Italy a couple years ago studying passive solar energy and natural heating and cooling. When he came back, he was inspired to get the system on the mechanical engineering building working again.
He said he was just looking for a source of funding to do it.
Then, they discovered a grant last summer for energy conservation offered by the state, called the Clean Energy Grant Program.
The grant will help them purchase materials, as well as provide some funding for student salaries and salaries for Mammoli and Vorobieff.
"A lot of credit should go to the state," he said. "The state is way ahead of the federal level - they (the federal level) say pretty things about renewing energy, but they cut funding to zero."
As of Tuesday, 88 solar panels still lay in the basement of the building, unused.
Mammoli and Vorobieff will be placing them on the roof of the building and are purchasing about 40 more panels.
They also plan on refurbishing water storage tanks and getting another pumping system placed in the basement of the building. The current system uses one pump. Two pumps will be used to keep the system running and keep the water in the panels from freezing at night. They will be using only water in the panels so the roof will not be damaged if the panels break.
"We're designing a few fail-safe methods," Mammoli said.
The system will cool and heat the building using two cycles - one in the summer and one in the winter.
During the winter, water is heated in the panels and stored, which heats the building. During the summer, hot water from the panels circulates to absorption chillers, which cool the water. That water can be stored or used directly in cooling the building. They can also use electric air conditioners in the building to cool water at night when energy costs are lower. This water can be stored for cooling the building during the day.
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