The campus celebrated the grand opening of the OU Clean Energy Research center on Thursday, March 31. The goal of the new center is to provide a place for students and faculty to develop clean energy alternatives. Plans for this center, located under the School of Engineering and Computer Science (SECS) as well as in the Shotwell-Gustafson Pavilion, have been in place for years but did not take action until it received proper funding.

“We received an initial grant from the Department of Energy (DOE), and then from the State of Michigan through a private partner that was matched dollar-for-dollar by OU President Gary Russi,” Dr. Chris Kobus, Director of the Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) said. “Those formed the vast bulk of our initial funding and with that we were able to purchase a substantial amount of equipment that will be needed going forward.”

Between 250-300 guests attended the opening of the CERC. Several demonstrations of what the CERC had to offer were available at the event.

“There were several vendors at the opening demonstrating energy efficiency technologies like solid-state lighting, waste heat recovery, hybrid vehicle tech, solar power, biomass and biofuels,” Kobus said. “Several of those demonstrations were by vendors that came to the CERC and the OU Incubator for proof-of-concept research and we are going forward with them in that regard.”

As of now, three faculty members and two students are involved with the new program. Since the CERC is so new, they expect to add more members soon. They are currently in the process of a few projects.

“Right now are we are busy installing our equipment into the Pavilion, including a biomass system that will heat the building, a biomass densification system for manufacturing our own fuel pellets, and working with several vendors in performing some proof-of-concept studies,” Kobus said. “On the education side, we just completed our first certificate course in energy management with the idea that this will become a graduate program under the engineering management umbrella in partnership with the School of Business Administration.”

The program plans on instituting a major over the next few years, as well as becoming an asset for the community.

“The public launch and what we are currently working on is just a start to what I hope will be a very fruitful endeavor for OU and the tri-county metro area,” Kobus said. “It is in need of energy management in order to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.”