Iowa State University Announced as Winner of Green Energy Challenge

Congratulations Iowa State University!

Iowa State University was named the winner of the Green Energy Challenge at the Opening General Session of NECA 2015 San Francisco on Sunday.

The team from Iowa State beat out two other finalists, Penn State University and the Illinois Institute of Technology, for the top spot.

The three teams made their final presentations and fielded questions form a jury of electrical professionals on Saturday. The jury then deliberated and made their final decision.

The project from Iowa State was upgrading an administrative services building on campus. Project results included increasing the building resiliency of the facility, incorporating green energy generation and implementing a complete lighting retrofit with an attractive payback period.

Team members include Lucas Baxter, Caleb Bonderer, Dylan Busby, Joe Hahn, Maggie Holt, Joe Kern, Bryan Marroquin, Regan Smiley, Rick Smith and Britta Sortland. The group’s faculty advisors are Jenny Baker and Beth Hartmann.

There was also a poster board contest component of the challenge. Seven poster boards were displayed at Moscone Center South to be judged.

Purdue University’s poster board was name the winner Sunday. Purdue’s team of students took on an energy retrofit project at Lambert Fieldhouse.

The project proposal involves adding a 150 KW Photovoltaic system to the roof of the athletic facility and upgrading the LED fixtures throughout the building. Along with the upgraded technology, daylight harvesting will be used to light the main part of the fieldhouse.

Team members include Joe Seacat, Alec Bucks, Riley Seahorn, Collin Seren, Taran Murphy, Wesley Gunning, Nick Myers, Taylor Samsil and Evan Solgere. The group’s faculty advisors are Brian Loss and Scott Santon.