Team Alberta eyes solar home project
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is an international competition that challenges collegiate teams to design, build and operate solar-powered homes that are cost-effective, energyefficient and attractive.
For the third time, a team of students from the University of Calgary has been selected to participate, one of only two Canadians to make the shortlist of 20; the other being Team Ontario (Queen’s, Carleton and Algonquin).
This year’s Team Alberta, which includes students from SAIT Polytechnic and Mount Royal University, has focused on the pressing needs of housing professional and management staff in remote communities and industrial camps. Borealis is a 1,000-squarefoot house being built for under $350,000 with solar panels covering the entire roof, plus solar thermal tubing to heat water. It will be constructed using three modules, integrating high-tech systems with the design intent of creating a “home away from home,” fulfilling a real need for affordable, quality and sustainable worker housing.
It’s a huge job with a budget of about $1 million. After rigorous testing here, the house will be transported to the competition site on a former airfield in Orange County, Calif.
Once there, the travelling team of 30 will be given nine days to erect the house and pass the key on to the judges.
It’s a complex competition in which the judges will put Borealis through its paces, including measuring the amount of energy generated and checking every piece of plumbing, wiring and structural engineering. Using only solar power, the team must do laundry every night and cook a dinner twice for 10 people.
Menus must be submitted in advance — and that’s where SAIT’s culinary arts students get to showcase their expertise. Mount Royal University students have been busy designing the interiors and, together with the engineers, business and architectural students at the university, the three institutions have had a total of 100 students involved.
The next stage is to deliver finalized construction documentation to the organizers in February. If successful, the team goes on to the next stage with a $100,000 cheque from the U.S. Department of Energy.
By that time they will have to show their budget has been raised — and that means finding another $300,000. Development directors from the three institutions are working hard to help sponsorship team lead Oliver Davidson, a finance student at Haskayne School of Business, to reach his objective and Jim Dinning, Chancellor of the University of Calgary, has offered to chair the need.
As well as contributing with pride to Team Alberta, sponsors have the satisfaction of enhancing the educational experience of students sharing the passion for advancing the development of sustainable housing.
And they get super exposure at a high-profile, international event that drew over 350,000 enthusiastic public, government officials, industry representatives and media both at the event in 2011, and at an adjoining Energy Expo the competing teams will have booths where sponsors can be promoted.
Project manager Alexandre St-Marie and faculty adviser Loraine Fowlow, associate professor in the faculty of environmental design, expect to organize a groundbreaking ceremony in February, have Borealis built and tested in April and see it shipped down to California in September.
Good luck to them all.
I had the privilege of getting to know Goldy Hyder soon after he completed his degree at University of Calgary and had joined his father at the family firm, Link Insurance. But he was ambitious and confident and soon got immersed in the field of politics rising to become director of policy and chief of staff for the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark.
And so we lost Hyder to Ottawa and he joined national public relations and public affairs company Hill + Knowlton Strategies in 2001. He became general manager of its Ottawa office and has now been appointed to the role of president of the Canadian operation, reporting to former president and CEO Mike Coates who moves into the chairman role while remaining as CEO.
The company’s six Canadian general managers will report to Hyder and he assumes responsibility for sales, marketing and new business development in Canada – meaning we get to see him again in Calgary.