ODU gets free portable solar-power technology
Emma Bergman, a freshman at Ohio Dominican University, has been on campus only three weeks but is taking full advantage of the free solarpowered charging stations for her laptop computer.
“There’s one close to our dorm,” Bergman said Wednesday. “You can do your homework and sit outside.”
Bergman, 19, of Oak Harbor, Ohio, and a member of the school’s softball team, likes the charging station and also appreciates light towers that now illuminate previously dark parking lots between the school and its athletic complex.
The free energy she and her fellow students use is part of $3.6 million in portable solar technology that ODU has been given by DC Solar Freedom, a California company that promised to provide the technology to the city that won the Smart Cities challenge.
Originally, DC Solar Freedom offered $1.5 million in free solar technology. But after meeting with university officials, the company decided to more than double its offer by providing 24 solar-powered light towers and charging stations to provide off-the-grid power to cellphones, laptops and cars, including the electric car the ODU safety department uses.
DC Solar Freedom, which provides low- or no-cost portable solar-energy technology to colleges, chose ODU for its donation because of its “enthusiasm,” the company’s Mark Hughes said.
“They share the same need for sustainability,” Hughes said Wednesday as university and local officials held an event to show off the solarpanel-powered technology at the school’s Near East Side campus. “They have a real need for our products.”
Originally, ODU and its nearly 3,000 students were to have a marginal part in Smart Columbus, but after DC Solar Freedom met with school officials, a match was made.
“They bring to life everything we talk about in our (company) vision,” Hughes said. “Change starts right here in Columbus at a local level.”
Some of the solar panels sit atop wheeled, portable generators. Several picnic table-like charging stations for phones, tablets and laptops dot the campus. The electricity for Wednesday’s news conference was provided by a solar generator that also was charging an electric car.
The portable solar-power program is part of the Smart Columbus initiative. In June 2016, Columbus beat out 77 other cities to be designated a smart city, winning a $40 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop intelligent transportation systems and a $10 million grant from Vulcan Inc., through the Paul G. Allen Co., to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
Both sides also see ODU as a laboratory for experiments that other schools can watch. About a dozen schools met at ODU immediately after the Wednesday news conference to discuss how the initiative can be used on their campuses.
“They were one of the first to bite on the opportunity,” said Jennifer Fening of Smart Columbus, “but it (may) go beyond that.”
Hughes said his company also has had talks with the Columbus Zoo about using the company’s products.