“URI Partnership for Energy”

By RUDI HEMPE
CELS News Editor & Reporter

A far-reaching proposal to study, research, evaluate and teach issues surrounding renewable energy resources has been given the green light at URI.

Called the URI Partnership for Energy, the project is funded by URI at $150,000 a year for a proposed three-year span. The partnership promises to involve students, faculty and existing resources at URI and link them with consumers and energy industries outside the university's gates.

The project has already leveraged money from the RI Office of Energy Resources which announced on GreenShare Field Day (Sept. 29) that it will provide a total of $ 200,000 to support energy-related research and analysis. Of that, amount, $ 75,000 will go to the partnership and the balance will go to the Graduate School of Oceanography to develop plans for a center for offshore energy technology research and development.

Thus the partnership now has $ 225,000 a yeaer for its operation.

The principals in the effort, called the “University of Rhode Island Partnership for Energy,” are Dr. Marion Gold, director of the CELS Outreach Center and Dr. Brett Lucht, a professor of chemistry.

The fact that the two principal investigators are in different colleges is symbolic of the partnership which promises to involve people, equipment and programs all over the campus.

That interactive concept is apparently what caught the attention of the Provost office that provided the funding under the President’s Partnership Program. President Robert L. Carothers started the program in 1995 to foster interdisciplinary efforts in research areas that are critical to societal needs.

Lucht had been in working on energy projects, especially batteries, for some time and he was interested in a state-issued RFP on energy outreach.

At the same time Gold was interested in more opportunities to diversify the CELS Outreach Center (former Cooperative Extension and Education Center) which has long been identified with horticultural and landscape issues.

When the state’s RFP was withdrawn, Lucht was still interested in an energy partnership. He spoke with colleagues in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences and the idea emerged to form an energy center at URI. Involving Gold’s operation which specializes in outreach was a natural fit.

“There’s a tremendous opportunity here,” says Gold who noted that undergrad students with an interest in energy issues will be recruited to work on research projects with professors.

Practicing what they will be preaching by posing with a hybrid car in front of the CELS Outreach Center which has a solar panel roof, are the recipients of a new URI Partnership for Energy grant are (l-r) Dr. Marion Gold, director of the center, Dr. Brett Lucht, professor of chemistry, both principal investigators, and Tara Germond who is the partnership coordinator.

They in turn will earn credits and a small stipend.

Lucht noted that the campus is filled with a number of energy-related studies and programs that could be interrelated through the partnership.

Besides his chemistry department and Gold’s outreach center, there will be researchers from oceanography, physics, chemical engineering, civil engineering, cell and molecular biology and environmental and natural resource economics involved in the partnership.

Up to 10 undergrad students, called “Energy Fellows,” will be assigned to work with the researchers. The students will be recruited before the end of the fall semester and their participation will begin in January, said Tara Germond, an Outreach Center employee who is the partnership coordinator. In addition five students will be recruited for summer work and will be provided on-campus housing. Some of the students may come from outside URI.

“We want students who are not only book-smart but who are excited about energy issues,” says Gold.

Lucht says the value to students is that they will be able to work on energy issues of global importance.

Efforts will be made to involve energy industries in the state as well.

So far as the public is concerned the outreach efforts will include a youth education program in schools, a volunteer training program, a special website and monthly seminars on energy issues. Once a year there will be an energy forum with a prominent speaker.

Those in the partnership will also work with state officials and hope to establish a Rapid Policy Analysis Center that ultimately will help policy-makers on energy issues.

While the partnership will focus on statewide energy issues, URI’s backyard will not be ignored. Making the campus more energy efficient will be

one of many goals of the program and the Office of Residential Life, Students Acting for Sustainability and the Renewable Energy Club will all be involved along with the URI Utilities Management Program and the President’s Council on Sustainability.

The grant will also provide funds for updating the NSF-funded RI Network for Computational Chemistry and Physics which is inadequate for the tasks the partnership anticipates. Funds will be available to add a new computer cluster.

Among the research areas that are involved in the partnership are electrochemical energy initiatives such as hydrogen storage, fuel cells, photovoltaic devices and batteries for electric vehicles. Also involved will be URI’s research in developing improved varieties of switchgrass to increase efficiencies in producing ethanol and studies in generating energy by harnessing ocean waves.

The partnership’s written proposal lists its overall goal as “a cohesive infrastructure for coordinating and integrating research, outreach and education efforts among faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students and community partners all working towards the long-term of fostering energy conservation, efficiency and innovation.”

Or as Gold put it put, when it comes to renewable energy efficiency, resources, economics and policy “We want URI to be a leader rather than a follower.”

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