Going back to solar power
Grant allows engineering building to renew panels
Rivkela Brodsky
Issue date: 5/4/06 Section: News
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Daily Lobo
Solar energy is returning to the mechanical engineering building.
Assistant professors Andrea Mammoli and Peter Vorobieff received a $200,000 grant in February from the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department to refurbish the solar panels adorning the roof of the building.
They hope the panels will run the heating and cooling systems of the building, and cut down on energy costs by about 20 percent, Vorobieff said. Right now, the department pays about $30,000 in energy costs.
The system to do that is already in place.
That's because when the building opened in 1980, it was equipped with solar panels, water storage tanks, a pump, thick walls and small windows.
Solar power was part of its infrastructure.
Vorobieff said it was the most energy-efficient building on campus when it was constructed.
At the groundbreaking ceremony in October of 1980, Sen. Pete Domenici called the building a step in the right direction for energy use in the nation.
After a couple accidents damaged the roof, caused by glycol, the anti-freeze fluid in the solar panels, the system was abandoned, Mammoli said. Also, funding for maintenance of the panels ran out.
Maurice Wildin, professor emeritus, was responsible for the system in the '80s. He said the system was used for about 10 years.
He said it was shut down because Physical Plant didn't want to repair the roof anymore. He said the glycol solution tends to tear up roofs. Plus, he said, there wasn't a good reason to keep the system. Parts of it were not being used, he said.
He said the current project is a good idea.
"I'm sorry we had to stop using it," he said.
Mammoli said the department never should have stopped using the system.
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