New Solar Farm Produces 25% of Cal Poly’s Energy Needs

School News — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 14:00:33 +0000

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — In January, California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) unveiled a farm that has nothing to do with its agricultural department. Is there an interdepartmental rivalry perchance? Nope — the coastal California school has opened a solar farm as part of its initiative to eventually become climate neutral.

The 18.5-acre solar farm will generate more than 11 million kilowatt hours per year, which would be sufficient to power 25 percent of Cal Poly’s energy needs as the campus strives to reach its goal of achieving net-zero energy status by 2050. “This is a huge step toward our goal of climate neutrality, and we are very excited about using this new facility to support students’ hands-on learning,” said Dennis Elliot, the university’s director of energy, utilities and sustainability, in a statement.

The solar farm consists of more than 16,000 individual solar panels and boasts a present capacity of 4.5 megawatts. For a sense of scale, the solar farm could power more than 1,000 single-family homes. To accomplish this, the project employs single-axis tracking technology, which follows the sun across the sky. This results in one-third more energy production than a conventional stationary system. Financing for the solar farm was provided by San Luis Obispo-based REC Solar under a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Duke Energy Renewables of Charlotte, N.C. The arrangement provides the ability to purchase energy at a lower rate and precludes upfront costs for the system’s construction and maintenance. Beyond the environmental benefits of the project, the energy savings accrued over the next 20 years will amount to an estimated $10 million.

“We applaud Cal Poly’s creativity in leveraging the system to inspire research in sustainability for years to come. REC Solar is privileged to be a part of the university’s sustainability journey,” said REC Solar CEO Matt Walz, in a statement.

Incidentally, REC Solar was founded by Cal Poly graduates and is owned by Duke Energy. The company proffers solar solutions for the university and school district markets. To date, the company has seen completion of more than 100 school solar projects. Meanwhile, REC Solar concentrates on developing solar curricula and other means of academic enrichment for school clients. To wit, the solar farm will also function as a working learning lab for students.

Spurring Cal Poly’s climate activities is, in part, the Golden State’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. The act set groundbreaking goals to cut the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. The 23-campus California State University system, including Cal Poly, set its own 2014 Sustainability Policy with an eye to exceed the state mandate and seek to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2040 — a decade in advance of the state goal. In addition to the solar farm, Cal Poly is pursuing its via energy-efficient, LEED-certified campus buildings of which the university currently has seven.

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Designing for Students with Developmental Disabilities

NEW YORK — Manhattan Star Academy, a school that serves children diagnosed with autism and other developmental disabilities, opened its new Upper West Side location in New York in October. New York-based Gran Kriegel Associates designed the 9,000-square-foot space to accommodate the needs of the 50, six- to 12-year-old students on the Autism Spectrum.
“It is impossible to generalize the requirements for this population due to the range of individual needs — it’s called Autism Spectrum for a reason — which range from hypo to hyper sensitivities of all the senses,” said David Kriegel, AIA, LEED AP for Gran Kriegel Associates. “Visual, auditory and tactile sense were our primary concerns with this project.”
The new space spans the third floor of the Lincoln Square Synagogue. Key design elements include subtle visual support and wayfinding to different parts of the school, as well as intimate social and transitional spaces and the use of calming colors and tactile surfaces.
“[The wayfinding elements] begin at the front entry, where the logo of the school, realized in a tactilely satisfying broom-like horsehair, is recessed into the reception desk,” Kriegel said. “Selected surfaces within the school have rich textures, including the wave-like sculpted accent tiles on the walls, providing students with a means of orientation by linking circulation paths with a common material and providing a three-dimensional pattern stimulating to the touch.”
Spatially, the design team avoided large, open plan areas and favored smaller, well-defined, intimate spaces, Kriegel added. The circular seating area with the low, star-patterned ceiling is an example of this type of space. Another is the small entry portal at each classroom, which forms a color-coded transitional space. The largest room, used for both meetings and physical therapy has a movable room divider to keep the scale more intimate when necessary.
“The faculty and staff rooms are opposite the classrooms on the main corridor, and were treated as color-coded volumes with soft, rounded corners, while the classroom side is defined with linear and orthogonal elements,” Kriegel said. “The juxtaposition of these undulating volumes serves to break the potentially intimidating length of the main corridor and define smaller spaces within its boundaries.”
One of the strongest features of the school is the vaulted ceiling in this corridor, he added. This was done to heighten the feeling of space, and also functions as a diffusing surface for indirect LED lighting, which helps minimize contrast and reduces energy costs.
“Minimizing contrast and shadow with diffuse light is an important element for children who are potentially over-sensitive to contrast,” Kriegel said. “While we would have preferred indirect lighting in the classrooms, the 8-foot, 10-inch ceiling heights (unavoidable because of the existing structure) made that type of fixture difficult to utilize. Instead, we used a grid of large, 4-foot diameter LED fixtures to form a luminous plane and minimize contrast within the room.”
The design team also paid close attention to acoustical performance to help minimize distractions and guarantee speech fluency. Several of the walls are surfaced with tackable fabric-wrapped panels to add visual simplicity and cohesion. They have the added benefit of reducing sound levels.
Kriegel said that designing for this population of students who have a difficult, if not impossible, time expressing their needs was a huge challenge.
“As architects, we have access to a tremendous amount of relevant literature, but we are trained as designers, not behavioral scientists,” he added. “Filtering the credible scientific studies from the chaff is to a large degree beyond our expertise, so we must rely on both the educators who know their children, and on our own intuition.”

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Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Archives - 91��Ƶ

New Solar Farm Produces 25% of Cal Poly’s Energy Needs

Designing for Students with Developmental Disabilities