Upcoming Events
|
··· October 3, 2009
This all-day workshop will cover the basics of roof and wall types, design, layered components,
functions, and benefits. It winds up with tours of Oregon Garden projects that apply
ecological horticulture to the sustainable landscape, including
raingarden, green roof, floating wetland, tunnel green roof, living
wall, biofilter strips for parking lots, and constructed wetland bog
filters.
··· October 7, 2009
GoGreen '09 is an all-day
conference built to inspire, motivate, and educate business owners to
"go green." Connect with 40 leading eco-visionaries, experts, and
like-minded individuals. Speakers include Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski,
Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown, P+OSI executive director Rob
Bennett, and many more. Oregon BEST is a community partner of event.
|
CONTACT US
Oregon BEST
P.O. Box 212
Portland, OR 97207
Tel. 503-725-9849
|
|
Executive Director's Report
Oregon BEST FEST '09: A Collaborative Success
The first ever Oregon BEST FEST '09 took place
in Portland on September 14th. Looking back on the event, I'm struck by the
unique mix of people that Oregon BEST is bringing together. The breadth of
stakeholders--university researchers, private companies, NGOs,
entrepreneurs,
government officials, and others--covers a wide range of interests and
technologies: from forest products and solar energy, to smart grid and green
buildings, to eco-districts and biomass energy.
Offering the right content to stimulate such a
diverse, energized, intelligent group of almost 200 individuals can be
challenging. But it's also incredibly rewarding. The poster session was abuzz,
business leaders said how much they appreciated the opportunity to connect with
Oregon BEST researchers, and it was a pleasure to watch faculty and students
presenting their work to such an eager audience.
The event definitely fit our mission: to spark
collaborations that help grow Oregon's green economy. I look forward to seeing
what takes off from the sparks at BEST FEST '09 in the coming months.
Read more about Oregon BEST
FEST '09 and download speaker presentations here.
-- David Kenney, President & Executive Director
|
Oregon BEST Researcher PROFILE
An Oregon Green Building Luminary
G.Z. "Charlie" Brown and the Energy Studies in Buildings Lab
 Oregon BEST researcher G.Z.
"Charlie" Brown is internationally renowned for his innovative research in
daylighting and energy performance of buildings.
As director of the University
of Oregon's Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory (ESBL), with offices in
Eugene and Portland, Brown and his 12-member team work with many of Oregon's
leading architecture firms. They also innovate new green building technologies
and materials with the potential for commercialization by a business partner.
Among the new products are:
-
a low-cost heat exchanger that uses attic and crawl spaces to more warm
(or cool) incoming ventilation air
- a window shading system that automatically opens closed window shades
when direct sun is no longer on work spaces (research shows shades remain closed longer
than necessary)
-
an on-grade floor and foundation system that's more energy efficient,
cost effective, and comfortable than conventional slab-on-grade floors.
Read the complete story here.
|
|
SPOTLIGHT on Oregon BEST Research
Oregon as Solar Energy Epicenter
Researchers and Shared Labs Give Oregon a Solar Edge
 Who says Oregon is too
cloudy to lead the nation in solar energy research and production? Germany has
fewer sunny days than Oregon, and it leads Europe in solar energy generation.
Oregon
BEST Member Faculty engaged in solar research, along with their network of
laboratory facilities, adds up to a collective powerhouse of tools and
expertise that's helping the state's solar companies compete globally
and making it easier to recruit new solar energy businesses to Oregon.
Oregon BEST developed and presented a dynamic, day-long Solar Materials Symposium as part of the Micro-Nano Breakthrough Conference in Portland on Sept. 21st. The event featured nationally recognized chemist Nate Lewis of Caltech and Jessika Trancik of the Santa Fe Institute. Panels of Oregon BEST
researchers and industry partners discussed current solar materials and described the cutting-edge research that's leading to the new materials of tomorrow. Oregon
BEST fosters collaboration between industry partners and these solar energy faculty whose research ranges from thin film technologies and materials to how
green roofs and solar panels might benefit one another.
See listings of Oregon
BEST's solar energy researchers and shared research facilities here.
|
OIT Wins Wind-Solar Energy Grant
Project Helps PGE Study Complementary Energy Sources
Portland General Electric has awarded the Oregon Institute of Technology a grant to support a combination wind-solar energy
project at Portland's David Douglas High School. The project is spearheaded by April Placencia, a
junior majoring in Renewable Energy Engineering at OIT. PGE is interested in studying the viability of co-placing solar and
wind power in the same installation, and how to integrate the two. "This small-scale system could provide
important data on how solar and wind can complement each other in offsetting
their generation intermittency," says Wayne Lei, director of research
and development at PGE. "The more we learn about how solar and wind can
work together will better enable us to integrate them onto the grid."
The OIT campus, which been geo-thermally
heated for more than 30 years, was the first college campus in North America to offer a
Bachelor's degree in Renewable Energy Engineering. OIT is also home to the Oregon Renewable Energy Center and the Geo-Heat Center. Read
more about this award-winning student project here
and OIT's sustainability efforts here. |
From Smart Transit to Hydrogen Production
Oregon BEST Researchers IN THE NEWS...
 ··· SCOTT ASHFORD, head of OSU's School of Civil & Construction Engineering, and Oregon BEST Technical Leadership Team member CATHERINE MATER organized and hosted a two-week visit to Oregon by 19 Iraqi engineering leaders interested in studying green building and renewable energy. Watch the Video >>  ··· GAIL ACHTERMAN, chair of the Oregon Transportation Commission and director of the Institute for Natural Resources at OSU,
was featured on a webinar about ways climate change will impact transportation system planning . Read More >>
 ··· Trillium FiberFuels, a company co-founded by OSU professor of Chemistry VINCE REMCHO, has been awarded a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy to commercialize
its technology for creating fuel-grade ethanol from straw and other
biomass .
Read More >>
   ··· OSU professors ALEX YOKOCHI, ROGER ELY, & HONG LIU are all working on ways to produce clean-burning hydrogen. From bacteria that flourish in low-light conditions to microbes found in wastewater to solar mirrors that crack water molecules, these Oregon BEST faculty and OSU's Hydrogen Club are innovating new, distributed methods of hydrogen production. Read More >> |
|
|
|
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 founding 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
|
|
|
