New Facilities to Help Stanford Students Study Green Technologies
STANFORD, Calif. — A sustainable building at Stanford University will do more than lower energy costs: the facility will serve as a hub for researching sustainable building technologies and practices.
The $118 million building is part of the 8.2-acre science and engineering quad built by the School of Engineering. The Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building, dubbed the Y2E2 building by students and faculty, features metering, measurement and monitoring systems that are integrated into the building to allow students to verify the effectiveness of the solar technologies.
Students will monitor solar systems currently used in different facilities by studying each unit’s effectiveness in the Y2E2 building. Three types of photovoltaic systems are mounted on the roof, including monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin film panels. Provisions have also been made to accommodate a fourth set of next-generation technology.
Cupertino Electric Inc. provided the roofing systems, climate control systems and other technologies throughout the facility.
Photocells installed by the company measure the amount of light that enters the building through atriums and perimeter windows, and interior lighting systems use those measurements to adjust the direction of fixtures. Light in the facility is reduced or increased to match levels of natural light.
Climate monitoring systems also monitor the temperature in rooms and automatically open or close windows to provide ventilation and a stable temperature. Active chilled beams will also be used in the ventilation system.
Space was left available in the building’s infrastructure to allow for the addition of fuel cells.
A three-level basement houses several laboratories including wet labs that will study wave action and its effects on coastal life.
Conference and teaching spaces will be available on the remaining floors and will feature access to the building’s monitoring systems.
“The whole building is a working lab and the majors that are focused here are going to be all about sustainability,” says Jeremy Camper, project executive for CEI.
Other sustainable technologies incorporated into the facility are cisterns that will collect rainwater for irrigation purposes, a rooftop weather station, light wells for basement and transoms within the office walls for natural light.
The facility opened to students in March and construction on the remaining four buildings in the Science and Engineering quad, also referred to as SEQ2, is expected to be complete in 2014.