Is City College on the brink of creating a sustainable, clean-energy campus?
The Energy Club thinks so.
Solar umbrellas equipped with power outlets, 3D printers, as well as an application that allows students to see what parking spots are available are among a few ideas being developed by the club.
Students Juan Uribe and Colin Dolin started the club last spring in hopes of raising awareness about sustainability.
“This is what I want to do for the rest of my living, change the world, so why not start now?” said Uribe, club president and electrical engineering major.
To help kick-start their projects the club went around to local businesses, telling them their mission and asking for support.
A Santa Barbara based solar company called Sun Pacific Solar Electric Inc. was impressed with the club’s blue print for their solar umbrella and graciously donated supplies as well as time to educate club members on solar technology.
With the backing from Sun Pacific Solar, the club began to focus its efforts on the development of a solar umbrella that would not only allow students and faculty a break from the sunshine, but also a place to charge their electronics.
Set on furthering their image of clean energy at City College, the group is planning on meeting with members of the business services department to discuss Proposition 39, the California Clean Energy Jobs act, but specifically bill 73.
The act states that it will “allocate revenue to local education agencies to support energy efficiency and alternative energy projects, along with related improvements and repairs that contribute to reduced operating costs and improved health and safety conditions in public schools.”
Senate bill 73 describes what exactly a school needs to do to acquire this revenue.
If the club is able to convince the school and later the Chancellor of California Community Colleges that the club can make the campus more sustainable, then City College could be awarded up to one million dollars to fund projects exactly like the energy club is envisioning.
Such funding would allow the club of about 30 to dive into other proposed projects such as the idea of a parking application for your phone that would show which spots or lots on campus are full.
“We like to get our hands into things,” said Energy Club moderator and Geology Professor, Bill Dinklage. “We want to keep thinking of renewable projects.”
The Transportation Alternatives Group on campus has taken note of the club’s parking app idea and think that it could highly benefit City College.
Perhaps the club’s most innovative project in progress is the construction of a 3D printer by president Juan Uribe, the group would use the printer to model real world projects.
“The boundaries are imaginary and the rules are made up,” said Uribe. “And the limits certainly don’t exist.”
The Energy Club meets on the first Friday of every month in EBS 117 at 11 a.m.
