The University installed a solar thermal system to supply heat for the Charles River Apartments over the summer. The project was completed in addition to several deferred maintenance projects, and is the first system of its kind in Massachusetts.

The project, a part of the Brandeis Sustainability Fund, was originally proposed by a student, Nicole Litvak '12.

"I was inspired by my study abroad experience in Israel, where virtually every household has solar hot water," wrote Litvak in an email to the Justice. "This technology is not very widely deployed in the [United States], where most of our solar is photovoltaic (using solar energy to create electricity as opposed to thermal energy for heating water)."

In addition to receiving some funding from the BSF, the project received a large portion of its funding from Walden Renewables. According to Sustainability Coordinator Lea Lupkin, the organization has paid for a majority of the installment and maintenance.

Litvak wrote that at first, the plan was just to install a small demonstration system on one building, because that is all the BSF would have been able to afford with the grant. However, a local company called Paradigm Partners provided Litvak with a solution that would require a private investor to buy and own the system, and Brandeis would buy the thermal energy from them. The muliple parties were unable to comment on the exact cost of the project.

"We, to date, have never used an alternative system to supply heat to the campus, [and] it's also the first project of its kind in the state," said Lupkin in an interview with the Justice.

The project was proposed during the 2011 to 2012 academic year, but only came to fruition this year. According to Litvak, after many meetings with Paradigm, Facilities Services, the BSF board and University President Frederick Lawrence, the project was finally approved, but "long after [she] graduated."

Lupkin said that the solar power is supplying heat to the water in the building's water-heating system, whereas previously, oil was being used. However, the oil system is currently still acting as a supplement to the solar thermal system. According to Lupkin, the engineers did not remove the oil system to ensure that there is a backup in place.

"What's considered by the engineers to be the best system is for it to supply about 60 percent of the thermal energy needed to heat the water," said Lupkin. "It's designed to have only about 40 percent heated by the oil. Obviously what's designed and what actually happens depends on what comes from the sun, but that's what it's designed for."

According to Director of the Department of Community Living Jeremy Leiferman, there are now solar-powered panels on the roof that are feeding into the hot water heating system. Lupkin explained that these panels are actually shaped more like tubes due to the fact that they are a part of a solar thermal system.

Charles River is not the only location that is powered by solar energy. Litvak was aware of the use of solar panels to provide electricity for Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, which have been functioning since February 2010, and wanted to bring solar thermal technology to Brandeis, as well.

According to a Feb. 23, 2010 BrandeisNOW article, the system powering Gosman is 271 kilowatts and comprised of over 1,200 high-efficiency photovoltaic modules.

This system is also owned by a third-party company, like the Charles River solar thermal system. The system is only supplemental, like Charles River's. "It's not supplying all of the electricity needed to support that building," said Lupkin.

According to Lupkin, there are no current plans to expand the system to other locations on campus.

Lupkin said that the choice to install the system for Charles River came out of a feasibility study that was funded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and performed by Paradigm Partners. No other buildings on campus were deemed as proper candidates for this sort of project in the short term through the feasibility study.

According to Lupkin, factors taken into account were the roofs of each building and their ability to support such a system, as well as the buildings' current heating systems. "For Charles River it made a lot of sense because that is actually the only building where the heating is still coming from oil.

"The rest of the campus is on steam provided by natural gas, so for Charles River it made a lot of sense both to save money for the institution as well as to reduce the carbon footprint," said Lupkin.

BSF receives about $50,000 a year through an additional student fee, and funds sustainability projects proposed by students. BSF asks students to submit ideas during the fall semester, and helps students develop formal proposals and projections of how the project could work. Proposals and final details are due by the end of the fall semester, and projects are funded and implemented over the course of the spring semester, according to Lupkin.

"All of the projects that were proposed by students, they stay involved throughout the process of making decisions and so in the case of ... the solar thermal project, she helped to find the firm that did the feasibility study and then ended up installing the units in the system," said Lupkin.

Litvak currently works as a solar analyst for a company called Greentech Media Research, completing research and consulting on the solar photovoltaic industry. "I was at Brandeis about a month ago and was thrilled to see the system finally being installed almost [two] years after I started the project," wrote Litvak. "I hope current Brandeis students take notice of the renewable energy that is powering/heating various parts of campus, but more importantly, I hope this serves as an example of how students can actually make major projects like this happen."

In addition to BSF projects, the University has been working on an energy-efficiency program. Last year, according to Lupkin, the Board of Trustees invested five million dollars, and this year it is investing another five million dollars, toward improving the infrastructure of buildings across campus and reducing energy use.

"Over the course of that year and a half we worked in basically a dozen different buildings working on upgrades, and that's estimated to save about $500,000 a year in utility costs and reduce our carbon footprint equivalent to taking over 300 cars off the road every year," Lupkin said.

Projects have included replacing the underground steam pipes across campus, upgrades to replace lights with more efficient technology, installation of occupancy light sensors, replacing air chillers and the improvement of ventilation and pressurization in laboratories.

"Upgrading those to be newer both reduces need for maintenance of those units and also often increases the efficiency of the units just because they're newer," Lupkin said.

Projects have occurred or will occur in the following buildings this upcoming year: the Goldfarb Library, Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, Usdan Student Center, Hassenfeld Conference Center, Goldman-Schwartz Art Studios, Spingold Theater Center, the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Center, East Quad, Massell Quad, Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, Rosenthal Quad, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections, Carl J. Shapiro Science Center and Shapiro Campus Center.
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