SEM is one of the sponsors for a student-led project to build a solar charging station at NC State University.
by Laura Wilkinson
The Technician
Two years after a group of environmental technology majors won the Think Outside the Brick competition, its idea of a solar pavilion will be realized.
In 2010, students Sonum Nerurkar, Eliza Jones, Bryan Maxwell and Zach Schnell received $1,000 to implement their solar panel project. A ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the pavilion to the public will be held Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. between Syme, Gold and Welch residence halls.
An enclosure between the three residence halls has three brand-new solar panels on the roof that send energy down to two outlets, or four plugs, that members of the N.C. State community can use to power their electronics outside.
Isaac Kichak, a senior in chemical engineering and the project developer, said the members of the development team quickly realized the original $1,000 allotted wouldn’t be nearly enough to fund the project.
The group decided to fundraise and offer donors a tax write-off, but that was not possible unless the group was a nonprofit organization. With that in mind, Students For Solar was created as a club and nonprofit to handle the fundraising, allowing donors like Southern Energy Management, the Phillips Foundation, Progress Energy, SAS and the Wolfpack Environmental Student Association to help fund the project.
Kichak said the company Solar World donated three brand-new solar panels that were more powerful than originally planned for, and Facilities created a custom-made enclosure to match the environment around the residence halls.
“I don’t think that students have ever been this involved in a project and had as much input, joint with faculty at N.C. State, in the history of the school,” Kichak said. “You don’t realize how much work goes into these small projects on campus; we don’t realize how many people have their hands on any project at any given time.”
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