Illini Solar Car was established last year with aims to design, build, and race a commercially-viable, solar-electric vehicle to compete in the 2019 World Solar Challenge. To meet this long term goal, the organization has the interim goals of building a lighter, single-seat vehicle to allow for competition in the 2016 American Solar Challenge, 2017 World Solar Challenge, and 2018 American Solar Challenge.

Illinois Solar Car has already received two small grants of under $5,000 each to work on prototyping aspects of their system. Though they have received significant donations of equipment such as solar panels and motors from outside companies, basic supplies to manufacture the car itself still must be purchased.

The full project funds the remaining costs associated with completing Solar Car’s first full-sized vehicle, with the expectation that having one completed vehicle opens the door for expanded funding opportunities from other sponsors.

Developing and implementing new alternative energy sources is essential to ending the era of fossil fuels and extreme carbon emissions. The more alternative energy sources available, the more potential there is for eradicating fossil fuels as the main energy source. Numerous different innovations have developed within the last few decades because of the massive increase in technology efficiency, and the U of I has taken the initiative to implement many of them. These strides toward alternatives increased after the university committed to cease using coal at Abbott by 2017. The replacement of this power will require as many alternatives available as possible in order to meet the growing need.

Biomass energy is a great example of how the University of Illinois is converting to more renewable energy sources. Biomass can be used to create energy because it contains stored energy from plants that have absorbed energy from the sun through the process of photosynthesis. When biomass is burned, this stored energy is released as heat.

In the Spring of 2014 the SSC funded, Field to Fuel: Biomass Heating on Campus. This project involved purchasing and installing a biomass boiler at the Energy Farm, in order to heat a research greenhouse using Miscanthus that is grown on the Energy Farm. The new biomass boiler arrived in early December, and installation is nearing completion!

This project is exciting because it is the first biomass energy initiative on campus, and it will work to meet the carbon emission caps that are outlined in the Illinois Climate Action Plan. Additionally, with this project, they hope to demonstrate the feasibility of biomass on campus, engage and familiarize faculty and staff personnel with the design, installation, and operation of such systems with a view to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy production on campus, support the education and training of students, and create awareness in the larger community about alternative energy sources. The ultimate hope for the project is that a successful pilot will pave the way toward expanded use of biomass heating on our campus and greatly reduce our campus greenhouse gas emissions.

Hello all, this past week was interesting.  We have busy mornings and slow, easy open hours.  This was great because it allowed us to get more back end work done during open hours.  We were able to sort hundreds of parts that had recently been donated, clean the shop, and make about 300 new student bike packets during open hours.  We sold 3 bikes for $400, 3 memberships for $90, and grossed $1391.50.  The shop was able to successfully switch over to the new membership cost, membership cards, and pricing structure.  I was able to complete the ordering of the LTN lights and the lights are on their way here.  I was finally able to order the filters for the sandblaster.  I have not been able to get an exact date for shipping, but we should be ready for more intensive use by fall.  We have held 2 basic classes on Thursdays and they have had 2 students apiece.  The topics were ABC Quick Check, and Everything You Wanted to Know About Cables and Housing. 

This coming week we will be closed Tuesday through Friday so little will be done.  I am arranging for the Thursday class to take place in my absence. 

Best,
James Roedl
 

Hello all, last week was good.  We had a lot of people come in.  We got quite a few donations as well.  We sold 5 bikes for $680, 1 build-a-bike for $40, 3 memberships for $90, and grossed $994.80.  Working Bikes picked up 65-75 bikes that we did not need or have room for.  Baker donated about 400 pounds of various aluminum parts.  We started sorting them Friday.  I started making the packets for ISSS, but ran out of paper clips.  I started the ordering process for LTN.

This coming week I will finish sorting the new donations, collect more donations from Baker, and finish making the ISSS bike packets.  I will also work on getting us some bikes built.

From the Campus Outpost,
James Roedl

The ICECF biomass boiler grant was approved!