For one group of graduate and undergraduate students, solving global warming begins on campus. For four years, members of the Stanford Solar and Wind Energy Project have proposed and developed alternative energy sources in creative and low-cost ways. Their work contributes to the University's overall effort to reduce its carbon impact and improve its energy efficiency (see sidebar) and provides students with opportunities for hands-on professional experience.
SWEP began modestly in 2006, when several students from the civil and environmental engineering department's atmosphere/energy program erected an anemometer on the roof of Xanadu. Like a 10-foot-high wet finger, the long pole with a whirling propeller measured wind speed to assess whether an electricity-generating turbine might be set up. The group's discovery: "There's no wind at Stanford!" jokes doctoral student and SWEP president John Ten Hoeve.
Undaunted, students looked farther afield, eventually setting up two wind-measuring towers in breezier Redwood City and Soledad, Calif. The group is now busy recording measurements to see if the wind is sufficient to develop a community-scale wind farm. If so, they will write a proposal for Stanford to build turbines. One 750kW wind turbine operating at the Soledad site could roughly offset the amount of electricity consumed at the Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey.
Project manager Eric Stoutenburg, another PhD student in atmosphere/energy, says such efforts allow students to apply classroom lessons to the real world. "The venture is turning into a valuable professional experience for several master's students graduating and seeking careers in alternative energy," he says. SWEP projects have been partly funded by the Stanford Green Fund, the department of civil and environmental engineering, and Mineral Acquisition Partners (MAP).
Since 2007, the group has also been investigating a resource the campus possesses in abundance: sunshine. Doctoral student Mike Dvorak purchased an inexpensive solar hot water heater during a student trip to China and installed it atop Professor Gil Masters's Renewable Energy Lab. Finding the new unit effective, Dvorak and Lauren Leonard, '08, convinced Stanford to set up competing solar water-heating technologies at two dorms: Adams and Robinson. Those heaters now provide an estimated 50 percent of the dorms' hot water needs.
More recently, students are investigating whether the University might erect photovoltaic panels to generate more of its own renewable energy or send electricity to the municipal grid in exchange for renewable energy credits. And several SWEP members have developed a proposal to establish solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations on campus.
"SWEP has made significant inroads into helping Stanford become sustainable through the use of clean renewable energy systems," says Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. Scott Gould, senior energy engineer in the sustainability and energy management department, agrees. "These students are already conversant in many of the same renewable energy topics we're studying. They're able to drill down into topics we could never do without hiring outside consultants."
Marguerite Rigoglioso is a Bay Area writer.
