CU students take solar approach to Sustainable Technology Showcase

By Larry Klaes

Cornell engineering students shed light last week on their efforts to play a role in solar energy development. The student team plans to have a solar-energy house built and shipped to Washington, D.C., in October as part of an international competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Josh Bonaventura-Sparagna '05, (electrical and computer engineering), right, and Emile Chin-Dickey '05 (economics), both members of the Cornell Solar Decathalon Team, show off the model of the house they are building for a competition in Washington, D.C., next fall. Team members set up a booth at the Sustainable Technology Showcase held in Ithaca Jan. 28. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

Some of the 65 undergraduate and graduate engineering students in the Cornell University Solar Decathlon (CUSD) team put their designs on display Jan. 28 at the Women's Community Building in downtown Ithaca for Ithaca's first Sustainable Technology Showcase.

The event brought together Cornell researchers and students with businesses from across New York state to show their accomplishments in terms of innovation and invention, and to present their ideas for preserving and enhancing the natural environment of central New York, while maintaining, enhancing and creating a viable economy for the region and its residents.

The solar house booth was a centerpiece of the conference. Explained Josh Bonaventura-Sparagna, an electrical and computer engineering senior and the CUSD controls team leader, the DOE has challenged competing schools to design and build an 800-square-foot, sustainable, solar-powered house, featuring an energy-efficient kitchen and bathroom. The Cornell team, he said, wants its house to "use less energy than we will get from the solar panels -- an energy balance that is part of the competition requirements."

Along with engineering students, the Solar Decathlon team includes some 80 students from other departments, including architecture, landscape architecture, and design and environmental analysis. Emile Chin-Dickey, a Cornell senior in economics and the team's business manager, declared that "this is proactive activism. We are trying to make a statement about renewable energy and sustainability by actually doing something about it."

Hosted by Sustainable Tompkins and the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, the conference also displayed exhibits by such groups as Community Energy, the national marketer of wind-generated power, and International Climbing Machines of Ithaca, which demonstrated its remote-controlled, wall-climbing device for paint removal and surface decontamination.

The conference was the brainchild of Gay Nicholson, program coordinator for Sustainable Tompkins, who teamed up with Stuart Hart, the S.C. Johnson Professor of Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management (read related story), who provided seed money for the effort.

Other sponsors were Cornell's Center for Technology, Enterprise and Commercialization (CCTEC), which acts as a catalyst for commercializing Cornell's laboratory inventions; the National Science Foundation-funded Cornell Center for Materials Research; Cornell's Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise Program; the Center for Life Science Enterprise, which benefits the biotechnology and life sciences industries of New York state by focusing on technology transfer, economic development, workforce training, entrepreneurial support and research and development; and the Community and Rural Development Institute, which serves as a bridge to state, national and land-grant system resources.

Hart opened the conference by declaring that "capitalism's greatest ability is to recreate itself." He observed that American corporations are realizing they cannot disregard the environment and the public in their pursuits of profits without ultimately hurting the planet.

"All sustainable technologies are disruptive," said Hart, "but not all disruptive technologies are sustainable." He defined sustainability as meeting present needs "without compromising the needs of future generations." And Richard Cahoon, acting executive director of CCTEC, said that the Cornell center is focused on inventions that are "driven by science, not near-term profits."

John Tuttle '81, CEO of DayStar Technologies, which makes photovoltaic solar cells, noted that New York state has set the goal of generating 25 percent of its power needs by the year 2015 from renewable sources, with much of that likely coming from hydroelectric power.