Upcoming Events
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··· May 8, 2009
Oregon BEST board member and VP of Operations for SolarWorld Industries America, Gordon Brinser, speaks at the City Club of Portland, 11:30 a.m., Governor's Hotel, Portland, OR.
··· May 8 & 15, 2009
PSU & Oregon BEST present Green Building and the Built Environment Seminar Series...
MAY 8: Werner Lang of UT Austin, "Architecture + Technology: Building Research for Sustainable Architecture & Design."
MAY 15: Mark Modera of the Western Cooling Efficiency Center in Davis, CA, "Hi-Tech Tools for Diagnosing & Repairing Uncontrolled Air Flows in Buildings." Each seminar runs 3 - 4 p.m. in PSU's Engineering Building, room 102, Portland, OR.
··· May 11-16, 2009
Oregon BEST researcher and UO professor of architecture Ihab Elzeyadi
presents his award-winning "Green Classroom Toolbox" research about
retrofitting educational facilities for carbon neutrality and
improved student health and academic performance at Solar 2009: American Solar Energy Society National Conference in Buffalo, NY.
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CONTACT US
Oregon BEST
P.O. Box 212
Portland, OR 97207
Tel. 503-725-9849
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Executive Director's Report
Last week, I finished my first year with Oregon BEST and am happy to report that we're seeing sustained progress across our efforts to promote research collaboration and industry engagement, and to maximize the funding leverage we achieve via our strategic investments. In this issue, you'll read about some of our people and projects delivering results for Oregon.
One exciting project that's engaging us is the Oregon Sustainability Center (OSC), a proposed 200,000-sq.-ft. building in downtown Portland that meets the intense standards of the Living Building Challenge developed by the Cascadia Region Green Building Council. Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Portland Mayor Sam Adams have both stated strong support for creating the OSC, which would serve as a center of excellence for sustainability and a portal for many of Oregon's sustainability-related programs, services, organizations, and businesses. A team of Oregon-based development, architecture, and engineering firms are exploring the feasibility of creating such a building, which must be net-zero energy, water, and waste and be built without some common (but environmentally hazardous) materials on a "Red List."
Oregon BEST staff, faculty, and students are engaged with the
OSC project, providing technical expertise and support to the industry team and developing a research agenda that uses this building as a "living lab" for studying not only the technical aspects of the building (e.g. energy systems performance), but also the human factors such as worker productivity and occupant health.
We look forward to keeping you posted on this and other projects as we continue to help fuel Oregon's green economy.
-- David Kenney, President & Executive Director
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Oregon BEST Brokers $1.3M Investment in Solar Energy Research at OSU, UO
New Shared Labs Will Help Oregon's Solar Energy Industry
Oregon's reputation as the North American leader in solar energy manufacturing received a boost in the form of a $1.3 million investment in solar energy research at Oregon State University and the University of Oregon. The funding, brokered by Oregon BEST, expands the Oregon BEST network of shared facilities that serves the state's university researchers and offers Oregon's solar industry access to advanced research tools, faculty expertise, and a better trained workforce. "This is very good news for SolarWorld and for other Oregon firms engaged in the solar energy sector," said Gordon Brinser, vice president of operations at SolarWorld's facility in Hillsboro, Ore. "By working together to grow a network of solar research facilities accessible to both industry and academia, Oregon's universities have the opportunity to become much more than the sum of their parts, and this helps position Oregon for more economic development around solar energy." Read More >> |
Oregon BEST Researcher PROFILE
Ihab Elzeyadi: Solar Awnings, Green Walls & a Love of Light
 Most solar PV panels are installed out of sight on building rooftops where they provide one function: converting sunlight into energy. Oregon BEST researcher Ihab Elzeyadi, a professor in the Dept. of Architecture at the University of Oregon, has designed a green building breakthrough: a solar awning that does much more.
Mounted on southern facades of buildings and installed in combination with an interior light shelf, Elzeyadi's solar awning provides what he calls, "energy to the fourth power." The four energy areas include: 1) electricity generated by PV panels on the awning, 2) daylight harvested and transferred to the interior of the building via a light shelf, 3) energy conserved during hot days by the shade the awning provides, and 4) nighttime lighting via solar-powered LEDs integrated into the light shelf.
Elzeyadi worked with UO's Frank Vignola to secure funding from the Oregon University System and contracted with King Image Signs, a local Oregon company, to build and install a prototype on campus. Among Elzeyadi's other unique research projects: a Green Wall and a Green Classroom Toolbox. Read More >>
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SPOTLIGHT on BEST Research
PSU Researchers Combine PV Panels with Green Roofs
 Matching funds provided by Oregon BEST have helped a team of researchers at Portland State University attract $600,000 from the National Science Foundation and other sources to study how installing solar PV panels above green roofs might boost panel energy production and improve green roof functions.
The shading provided by the solar panels could benefit green roof vegetation during hot, dry months or enable the use of plants with better carbon sequestration. Vegetation might also help cool the solar panels, which lose efficiency as temperatures rise. The collaborative project involves Portland General Electric, EC Company, Portland Bureau of Environmental Services, and several units at PSU.
"People tend to think of solar panels and green roofs as 'either or' when it comes to installation, but they might be mutually beneficial, so people could do both," says PSU chemistry professor Carl Wamser, who is collaborating with PSU professors David Sailor in engineering and Todd Rosenstiel in biology. "Nobody else I know of is doing this." Read More >>
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From Diatoms to Diesel Engines
Oregon BEST Researchers IN THE NEWS...
 ··· JOHN WAGER and DOUG KESZLER, OSU professors of electrical engineering and chemistry, receive a $3 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy for super-advanced solar energy research. Read More >>
 ··· GREG RORRER, an OSU chemical engineering professor and a researcher with Oregon BEST and ONAMI, discovers a way to use the shells of single-celled marine life forms called diatoms to create a
new solar energy technology.
Read More >>
··· UO architecture professor BROOK MULLER receives a 2009 Oregon Civic Engagement in Sustainability
Award. Read More >>
 ··· Sustainable Industries magazine names JENNIFER ALLEN, interim director of the Center for Sustainable Processes & Practices at PSU, one of the top women
sustainability leaders. Read More >>  ··· OPB Radio's Think Out Loud program features BOB BASS, professor and director of the Renewable Energy Engineering program at the Oregon Institute of Technology, as a guest on the topic of green collar jobs. Read More & Listen to the Show >>
 ··· RICH PETERSON, an OSU professor of mechanical engineering, has made a major new advance in using waste heat to run a cooling system, a technology
that can improve the energy efficiency of diesel engines, and might
some day appear in automobiles, homes, and industry. Read More >> |
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Established with funding from the Oregon Legislature in 2007, the Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center (Oregon BEST)
connects Oregon businesses with the state's shared network of university
labs to transform green building and renewable energy research into
on-the-ground products, services, and jobs that power Oregon's green
economy. Oregon BEST's partner universities include Oregon State University, the Oregon Institute of Technology, Portland State University, and the University of Oregon.
Oregon BEST · PO Box 212 · Portland, OR 97207-0212Tel. 503-725-9849 · On the web: oregonbest.org
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