Hard as it is to admit, climate change won’t be stopped simply by turning out your lights, or by taking shorter showers. Those are certainly parts of the solution, but it’s going to take the innovation and creativity of a lot of our best and brightest.
Fortunately, such young, agile minds abound at Harvard. In fact, an entire class of Harvard’s most problem-oriented students are working on what we can do here, on our campus.
Engineering Sciences 96 (ES 96) has traditionally been a hands-on class, tackling a new large problem each year. This year, inspired by President Drew Faust’s commitment, the instructors decided to focus on how Harvard could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
“Since Harvard made such an ambitious pledge, we thought there was a good chance that people at Harvard would be interested in working with a class of undergrad engineers,” says Robert D. Howe, Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Engineering, who co-instructs the class with Warren Seering, a visiting professor of mechanical engineering.
According to Howe, ES 96 is “pretty different from most classes at Harvard. The goal is not to teach students how to analyze problems. The goal is to teach them how to come up with answers to big messy problems, much more complicated than you find in a textbook or a problem set.”
Not only are students analyzing cutting-edge technologies like solar thermal, they also have to keep in mind additional restrictions faced by Harvard buildings, like those placed on buildings by the Cambridge Historical Commission.
“You can’t just throw big solar collectors on the roofs of these buildings without considering how to hide them, so they don’t change the historical appearance of the place,” Howe says.
To identify different means of reducing greenhouse gas goals, the class has split up into three groups: Smart Grids, Green Dorms, and Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC).
According to Howe, the Green Dorms team is designing a room in one of the Houses so as to minimize greenhouse gas emissions, while the HVAC team is looking at the latest breakthroughs in ventilation for full buildings. Both teams are doing their research with the hopes of being able to make concrete recommendations for the upcoming renewal of all the Houses.
“This idea here is to look at technologies that are a little beyond what you can buy commercially right now,” Howe says. “What will be available in the timeframe across which these renovations will occur? And how might Harvard incorporate those into building plans to lessen building impacts even further?”
The third group, Smart Grids, is looking at ways to monitor Harvard’s energy use across campus, and to reduce energy use at its busiest times. As Howe explains, when energy use is at its peak, not only does Harvard have to pay more for each kilowatt-hour (kWh), but it’s also producing more pollution per kWh. At these peak times, providers engage their second- and third-tier generators–the ones that are less efficient, and that they generally try not to use. One possible solution to this problem is that the team is exploring possible energy storage methods, finding ways to store large amounts of energy during off hours, and then using those at peak times to reduce demand on the providers.
The members of ES 96 have already met with University Operation Services, vice president for facilities Tom Vautin, and Office for Sustainability (OFS) director Heather Henriksen, and plan to meet with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Office of Physical Resources and Planning in April.
The final reports of all three ES 96 groups will be finding their way to people who can use them. Not only are the reports publicly available online, but the students will give a final presentation attended by staff from University Operations Services (UOS), OFS, and equipment vendors.
The event, to take place in Maxwell Dworkin G115 at 2 p.m. on Monday, May 11, is open to everyone.
(Photo Caption: Students in ES 96 learn about LEED from OFS’ own Green Building Service Manager for New Construction, Andrea Trimble.)
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