Using State Or Federal Department Of Energy Demonstration Grant Funds As Hands On Educational Opportunities For Engineering Students

All motivated engineering faculty regularly look for new and innovative opportunities to provide unique and meaningful learning experiences for their students. State and Federal demonstration grants to non-profit organizations provide such learning experiences. For example, our school, Lawrence Technological University, received a $60,000 grant from the State of Michigan in the summer of 2004 for an on-campus installation of a 10-kW photovoltaic demonstration project. We pursed this grant with the intent that the project be used to supplement Lawrence Technological University’s growing academic engineering curriculum in the field of Alternative Energy. We have found that such demonstration grants provide invaluable real-world educational enrichment opportunities for engineering students if the projects are managed appropriately, implemented within the skill sets of the students involved, and address the time constraints of the academic calendar year. The obvious benefits to students include key engineering activities such as the proper definition of a project and its scope, systems design, hardware and equipment procurement, installation, safety checks and trouble shooting, system validation and commissioning. Several other broader educational benefits to students include cross-departmental collaboration, team work, resources planning and scheduling, budget management and vendor relations from such projects. We installed our 10-kW PV project using volunteer student help outside the bounds of classroom activities. Here we present a summary of the project itself, along with a one-year post-installation assessment of the Lawrence Technological University’s project. Also reviewed are its benefits to Lawrence Technological University’s students and our Alternative Energy program, along with several recommendations for how other educators might also successfully proceed with similar efforts. Introduction and Background For the past several years Lawrence Technological University (also known as LTU) has been actively involved in the field of alternative energy in both design competitions and in the formal education of its students through its curricula and student projects in both the College of Engineering and well as the College of Architecture. In 2003 LTU received a significant grant from NextEnergy, a nonprofit organization in the State of Michigan, to augment its Alternative Energy curriculum. The NextEnergy grant helped LTU develop additional courses, but funds from the grant could not be used to purchase laboratory equipment or experimental hardware. This was an unfortunate limitation, so the faculty involved in our Alternative Energy program felt it was critical to secure additional funding specifically for procuring laboratory equipment and related hardware to augment and complement the education of or students in this important area. During this time the Energy Office of Michigan’s Department of Labor & Economic Growth initiated a Request for Proposals at the start of 2004 from public and non-profit organizations to install and demonstrate a new 10 kW or larger solar photovoltaic (PV) system. The grant incentive was for $60,000, but was not to exceed 90% of the PV system equipment, supplies and material costs, which ever was less. The grant funds were to be expended and the project was to be completed within 12 months of grant award. Proposals were due April 15, 2004. We felt this was a good opportunity to not only secure some of the needed equipment for our Alternative Energy program, in this case a complete photovoltaic system, but could also be used as an excellent student training opportunity in engineering project management. Prior to proposal submission LTU, under the direction of the author, organized a preliminary planning group to help develop our grant proposal. The planning team was composed of the author; the Director of LTU’s Campus Facilities; Mr. Robert Pratt, PE and founder and President of RGP Pro, Inc, a technical and engineering consulting firm located in Farmington Hills, Michiga; the Managing Editor of the LTU’s News Bureau, Karen Sanborn; a Professor of Architecture at our school; and a representative from LTU’s Advancement Office. The planning group reviewed the RFP and provided guidance regarding content and approach for the LTU proposal. From the first meeting we focused on two areas, writing a winning proposal and how we could involve students at every level of the project. Mr. Pratt provided initial input as to the best on-campus location site for the project, and how best to design the system to comply with the grant requirements. Because the grant was for a maxim of $60,000, we knew additional funding was going to be required. Our Dean of Engineering has been very supportive of our Alternative Energy program and assured us that if we got the grant that he would help us secure the additional funds to complete the project. This was vital, as the proposal required us to document that matching funds would be available to complete the project. After detailed review we proposed placing the system on top of the high-bay of the engineering building, as this location provided adequate solar exposure throughout the day, and possessed a roof that could withstand the structural loading of the system. A mono-crystalline or polycrystalline silicon PV system was also proposed for several reasons, 1) mono-crystalline or polycrystalline silicon PV systems have the highest efficiencies of commercially available technologies and, therefore, deliver a smaller system array footprint; 2) the higher efficiencies result in a smaller required mounting system size and, thus, a lower mass loading on the roof; 3) several amorphous silicon PV demonstration systems have already been installed in the Sate of Michigan, and it seemed that a state-of-the-art mono-crystalline or polycrystalline silicon PV system would provide worthy technical comparison to the amorphous silicon PV demonstration systems already in the region. The LTU proposal also suggested that in the future some of the power from the PV system would be routed to the new (but at that time not yet started) Student Services Center to power some type of alternative energy demonstration. LTU received notice in the late spring of 2004 that we had submitted a successful proposal and had received the grant for funding to design and install the 10 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) system on our campus.