Penn State has received the largest grant in its history to conduct research to try to make buildings more energy-efficient — $129 million in total.
The Department of Energy (DOE) gave $122 million to build an energy innovation hub at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Penn State Vice President for Research Henry C. “Hank” Foley said.
The money will help build the Greater Philadelphia Energy Cluster, a massive “innovation hub” dedicated to making “super low-emission buildings,” Foley said.
“This is almost like NASA seeking to get to the moon in the 1960s,” he said.
The project was U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu’s idea.
“No one has ever had the daring to do what Secretary Chu has done, which is to build these hubs and focus national attention on these particular issues,” Foley said.
Penn State is working with other academic institutions — the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon and Princeton, among others — but is recognized as the project leader.
“We had the concept and, frankly, the No. 1 architectural engineering program in the country, probably the world,” Foley said.
The Department of Commerce, the National Institute of Science and Technology and the Federal Small Business Administration also gave $7 million to the project, Foley said.
“They’re giving us $7 million to make sure we are working hard to train a new workforce for the 21st century in [energy innovation],” Foley said.
Foley said Penn State is forming partnerships with sponsors that will develop so that funding will continue as the project progresses.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has already allocated $30 million to the project, he said.
The DOE is also funding two other innovation hubs, which Foley said are about the same size in terms of money given to them by the DOE: a nuclear energy hub in Tennessee and a solar power hub in California.
While the project hopes to improve sustainability on a national level, Penn State is still trying to improve it on a local one.
“We are trying to run the university in a wise manner that will minimize our pollution, our use of natural resources and reduce our costs,” Office of Physical Plant (OPP) spokesman Paul Ruskin said.
One effort includes constructing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green buildings, Ruskin said. The Forestry Building, University Health Services, Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, the addition to Rec Hall and the School of Landscape Architecture are all LEED-approved buildings.
Some of the factors LEED certification assesses are the distance the building’s material was shipped, whether mail is delivered in an alternative energy vehicle and the number of boxes used to ship the building’s furniture, Ruskin said.
Penn State is also installing new gas-powered turbines to help heat the east part of campus, Ruskin said. These turbines will burn compressed natural gas — a clean source of energy, he said.