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Project Updates for collection: Living Lab Facilities / Programs

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  1. eweek announcement

    Associated Project(s): 
    Solar Power on Campus

    Sustainable Issues and Opportunities for Handling End-of-Life PV Modules

    According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, solar power is the fastest-growing energy source in the U.S. and this growth will continue to rise. At the moment, only a few states have adopted solar PV end-of-life handling policies. Thus, a lot of modules may end up in landfills. The panel discussion will be on barriers, policies, and sustainable opportunities for end-of-life PV modules.

    October 22, 9:30–11 am

    Jennifer Martin • Illinois Sustainable Technology Center

  2. 10/16 Zero Waste SWATeam Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Large-Scale Food Waste Composting
    Food Waste Reduction
    Enviropures

    Attached are the meeting minutes and chat from the Zero Waste SWATeam meeting on 10/16.

    Discussed were the following topics:

    Reducing Food Waste

    • Post-consumer food waste prevention
    • Post-consumer food waste recovery

    Vending Machine Alternatives to Single-use plastics

    Plastic Recovery

    Single Use Plastics

    Illini Union Shadowbox attachment

    Food Literacy Project

     

    Attached Files: 

  4. Solar Farm 2.0 in F&S Quarterly Report

    Associated Project(s): 
    Solar Farm 2.0

    SOLAR FARM 2.0 CONSTRUCTION UNDERWAY
    Construction started on the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign’s Solar Farm 2.0 in August, with a commercial operation date expected for early 2021. The new 54-acre, 12.1 megawatt (MWdc) solar array is located north of Curtis Road, between First Street and U.S. Route 45, next to the Village of Savoy. Once completed, the solar farm will produce 20,000 MWh annually, almost tripling the university’s existing on-site renewable energy generation. Through a combination of utility-scale installations, integrated facility rooftop arrays, and wind power purchase agreements, clean power usage at the U of I will increase to more than 52,000 MWh per year, which is over 10 percent of the campus electrical demand. Faculty have already identified research projects that will use the Solar Farm 2.0 installation, primarily related to the pollinator-supportive plants under and around the panels.

  6. Weekly Update: Open hours sign, bikes pick up

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All,

    Last week I had an epiphany that we should probably have a sign on the door that lists our hours, even if they are appointment only. That’s in the works, should be ready tomorrow.

    With the decrease in testing for grad/staff we’ve had to turn a few people away for not being up-to-date. They have, by and large, been totally understanding. A few people have emailed and canceled ahead of time, which is welcomed.

     

    Set up a secondary pegboard in the shop to better organize freewheel/cassette tools—it’s a vast improvement over the drawer and/or coffee can we’d been using before. Last week I grabbed the scrap metal bin, some miscellaneous parts, and Aquaham Lincoln. He’ll live atop the fridge.

    This week I’ll coordinate with Parking to pick up a few bikes—only space for 3 or so—for instructional/teaching purposes with the new hires, schedule a staff meeting for my team, finalize placement for wheel hooks around the shop to increase storage.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 12
    Sales: $747
    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Refurb bike: 2 for $430
    Tire/tubes: 10 for $57

     

    Thanks!

     

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  7. Red Oak Rain Garden Nears Completion with Award of Grants

    Associated Project(s): 
    Red Oak Rain Garden
    Issue Press Releases and Sustainability Reports
    ICECF Grants
    Green Infrastructure
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    Please see the attached file for a recent press release regarding the Red Oak Rain Garden and their awarded grants from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation.

    Attached Files: 

  9. Resilience iCAP Team Follow-Up Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Resilience iCAP Team
    Champaign County Hazard Mitigation Plan
    Urban Biodiversity Master Plan
    Rainwater Management Plans
    Environmental Justice Plan

    The Resilience SWATeam met again on October 9th, 2020 at 12pm. The team completed the iCAP 2020 Assessment and in doing so determined the team's priorities for the year. The Assessment has been sent it to the iCAP Working Group, and the team is looking forward to advancing our objectives!

    Attached are a PDF of the completed Resilience iCAP Assessment, meeting minutes, and chat log. 

    The agenda was as follows:

    1. Review iCAP 2020 Assessment (Due October 9th)

    2. Update on Hazard Mitigation Plan recommendation

    3. Plans for future meetings

    4. Announcements

     

     

    Attached Files: 

  10. Energy002 Building Envelope - Successful

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP Working Group (iWG)
    Energy iCAP Team Recommendations Summary
    Energy iCAP Team
    Building Envelope Pilot Project

    Morgan White, Associate Director of F&S for Sustainability, responded to Dr. Ximing Cai with the following email. See the attached file for an overview of the building envelope testing pilot project.

    ===

    Hi Ximing,

    Thank you for sharing the Energy002 SWATeam recommendation. As we discussed, F&S is pleased to move forward with this recommendation to do a Building Envelopes Pilot Project on campus.  We have submitted a request to the Student Sustainability Committee, seeking their support to run this pilot project.  We are also meeting with Bill Rose, the co-chair of the iCAP Energy Team, and several F&S team members to discuss first steps.  I’ve attached a project overview here, which we can share with the iCAP Working Group.

    Thanks,

    Morgan

    ====

    See transmittal of Energy002 Building Envelope to F&S here. 
    See iWG assessment of Energy002 Building Envelope here.
    See recommendation and submittal of Energy002 Building Envelope here. 

    For additional progress on this effort, see Building Envelope Pilot Project. 

     

    Attached Files: 

  11. 10/5 Resilience iCAP Team First Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Resilience iCAP Team

    The Resilience SWATeam met for the first time on October 5th, 2020 to get to know one another other and assigned team members to specific iCAP 2020 Objectives. We did icebreakers and new student members were introduced to different faculty, staff, and community members that are leading projects throughout campus. The team will have a follow-up meeting on October 9th to discuss work done over the past week and complete the iCAP 2020 Assessment. Attached are the meeting minutes. 

    The agenda was as follows:

    1. Introductions

    2. Evaluation of current progress on completing iCAP 2020 Objectives

    Attached Files: 

  14. Weekly Update: Refurbished bike swap, low numbers, signage

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All,

    Another week in the books! It’s definitely still an adjustment to be open only by-appointment. We’re still getting phone calls and emails about user error and whatnot when scheduling and we’re only seeing 4 or so people per day. But hey, it’s a pandemic. People are still going to the old shop—some internet search engines are not up-to-date but we do have signage over there. Ironies of all ironies since people couldn’t seem to find that tucked-away garage before and are now flocking to it, it seems.

     

    Had a refurb-swap of a loose cranked bike. Thankfully the gentleman wasn’t injured in the failure. He took a different same-priced bike. He was very understanding and that was appreciated.

    Still working on upping our staffing levels to a comfortable number.

    We’ve only done a handful of bike registrations, which either speaks to the cost-as-deterrence or that people are picking them up elsewhere. Hopefully the latter!

    Still optimizing the layout and functionality of our new space but everyone who’s visited that was familiar with the old space has been blown away by the across-the-board improvements. I discovered a closet here that I didn’t know existed which now is storing the Bikes at Work trailer and the smaller kid-sized one. Aquaham Lincoln will likely migrate over here this week.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 21
    Sales: $562.70
    Memberships: 3 for $90
    Bikes: 3 for $360
    Tires/tubes: 1 for $1

     

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  15. Weekly Update: First week open, Light the Night

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All,

    Last week was our first full week of being open since the pandemic-induced shutdown. We are by-appointment only and making do with that. Visits, sales, and the like are—compared to normal—way down for this time of year.

    We also had Light The Night last week and hosted one of the sites here at the Bike Center. It wasn’t as great a turnout as hoped but it was a new location for LTN and it’s a pandemic. We weren’t able to do our normal word-of-mouth publicity during open hours to the degree we’re accustomed. Thankfully we got some signage up at the old garage alerting people to our new location.

     

    This week we’ll work on optimizing the scheduling system, staff meetings, and safety checking a handful of bikes.

    Visitors: 38
    Sales: $951.50
    Memberships: 1 for $30
    Bikes (refurb): 5 for $790
    Tires/tubes: 3 for $27

     

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  16. Solar Farm 2.0 construction update from Sushanth Girini at F&S

    Associated Project(s): 
    Solar Farm 2.0

    The Solar Farm 2.0 construction is on schedule to be in service by 1/28/2021. Currently the project is installing approximately 4,400 posts in ground for the panel foundations. One of key objectives is to complete the Golden Row* by end of this month. Once the golden row is completed, inspected, and approved, the construction will be in full force to reach completion. The university is scheduled to perform routine inspections and capture all the underground equipment GPS points for reference. A recycling plan is in place, and the project is coordinating with F&S Transportation to collect the recyclable waste. The installation of a utility switch on the east side of the farm is complete.

    Procurement: We have received all the racking equipment and about 80% of the solar panel on site. Transformers and inverters are scheduled to be delivered by end of Oct 2020.

    ~by Sushanth Girini, management engineer at F&S Utilities and Energy Services

     

    * Golden Row - is a single row of solar panel constructed by the construction crew. Once the project make sure all the connections are good and row is as per design, it gets approved. It's like a start of what's coming. Like a movie trailer!

  18. Design Constraint discussion with F&S and Researchers

    Associated Project(s): 
    Adaptive Aluminum Tensegrity Structure as a Bike Parking Canopy

    F&S staff met with the researchers to discuss the design constraints for installing the tensengrity structure for bike parking at Newmark Civil Engineering Lab (NCEL).  Dr. Ann Scychterz and Dr. Nishant Garg at CEE met with Stacey DeLorenzo, Brent, Lewis, Sarthak Prasad, and Morgan White from F&S on 9/22/2020. We discussed a few design constraints, such as staying out of the tree lines and height requirements for the proposed structure.  We also discussed the potential lifetime of the structure, various design shape options that may be incorporated, material selections, and maintenance plans.  The faculty will contact F&S again in early December.

  20. SWATeam charge letters

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP 2020: Illinois Climate Action Plan
    Topical iCAP Teams
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Energy iCAP Team
    Education iCAP Team
    Land and Water iCAP Team
    Resilience iCAP Team
    Transportation iCAP Team
    Engagement iCAP Team

    Attached are the charge letters sent to each of the SWATeam members with the iWG copied, on September 16 by iSEE interim director, Dr. Madhu Khanna. 

    Attached Files: 

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