BeauSoleil: Making the Cut

PVS/Inverters installed on test roof

Solar Decathlon Update: Every two years 20 university teams are chosen, based on proposals, to design an all-solar home and assemble it on the National Mall in Washington DC for public viewing and judging. Check back each Wednesday as the NAV Blog reports on the process of the design and construction of BeauSoleil, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's entry. For more info about the project, visit their website at http://www.beausoleilhome.org/. And check out short film about the project here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsuziBrNeO4

REPORT FROM THE FIELD:

The time is growing near to begin fabrication of the shell of the BeauSoleil Louisiana Solar Home. The team is currently finalizing details in preparation of beginning programming of the CNC machine at LASBH (Louisiana System Built Homes). The cutting of panels is set to begin around the first of December. This is a serious matter because once the panels are cut there is no going back. The pressure is on but Team BeauSoleil is up to the challenge!!!

The process of SIPS construction begins with laying out the walls and the roof of the house in elevation looking from the inside. These elevations are cut into sections in a way that they will be most efficient. Expansion is taken into account the pieces are numbered and laid out in the proper orientation as per the loading of the panels onto 8’ x 24’ pieces. These sections are laid out on the 8’ x 24’ panels like a puzzle to minimize waste. These panels are plotted using CAD software. Once they are plotted they are ready to be converted into a format that can be recognized by the CNC machine. This software allows us to program the depth of the cuts as well as the order of the cuts. When this is complete the program is entered into the machine and the cutting can begin.

The cutting of the panels should only take a few days; meanwhile the floor structure and subfloor will be being assembled. Upon completion of this step the walls will begin being erected onto the base of the house this assembly should only take a couple of weeks and the shell should be at the BeauSoleil World Headquarters around the first of the year. Finally!!

The hard work of the Team is paying off and the fruits of our labor will soon be visible. Stay tuned for more details

Jeremy Credeur

Construction Manager

Team BeauSoleil

Neil Young's American Dream

Rock and roll legend Neil Young has a few things to say about the future of America's auto industry.

In a recent column on the Huffington Post blog entitled How To Save A Major Automobile Company, Young volunteers:

We need visionary people now with business sense to create automobiles that do not contribute to global warming.

It is time to change and our problems can facilitate our solutions. We can no longer afford to continue down Detroit's old road. The people have spoken. They do not want gas guzzlers (although they still like big cars and trucks). It is possible to build large long-range vehicles that are very efficient. People will buy those vehicles because they represent real change and a solution that we can live with.

About a possible bailout, he goes on to say:

The government must take advantage of the powerful position that exists today. The Big 3 are looking for a bailout. They should only get it if they agree to stop building autos that contribute to global warming now.

Follow the link for the full article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-young/how-to-save-a-major-autom_b_143749.html

But Neil Young is not just singing a song about the next generation of automobile. He's taking personal initiative to solve the problem of fossil fuel dependency by retrofitting his '59 Lincoln Continental as an electric hybrid. He calls it the LincVolt.

Young, along with his team of mechanics, is vying for the ten million dollar X Prize for developing the first commercially viable car that gets more than 100 miles per gallon of gas.

A link to a recent New York Times story about the project:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/automobiles/autospecial2/30young.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=neil%20young%20lincvolt&st=cse&oref=slogin

And for some deep inside information, check out the official website for LincVolt updates.

http://www.lincvolt.com/lincvoltmedia.html

BeauSoleil Film

Check out this new film on the BeauSoleil Solar Decathlon entry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsuziBrNeO4

Spring Forward, Fall Bike

A few scenes from Longleaf Trace - a Rails to Trails Conservancy bike trail - as fall paints the landscape.

Judging the Solar Decathlon

Twenty university teams will open their all-solar home designs up to the public next October demonstrating some exciting possibilities for the next generation of housing - the zero-energy home.

The participants, contestants in the biennial Solar Decathlon, will also open their experimental prototypes up for judging.

Why is the US Department of Energy sponsoring this event?

In their words:

The Solar Decathlon brings attention to one of the biggest challenges we face—an ever-increasing need for energy. As an internationally recognized event, it offers powerful solutions—using energy more efficiently and using energy from renewable sources.

The Solar Decathlon has several goals:

1. To educate the student participants—the "Decathletes"—about the benefits of energy efficiency, renewable energy and green building technologies. As the next generation of engineers, builders, and communicators, the Decathletes will be able to use this knowledge in their studies and their future careers.

2. To raise awareness among the general public about renewable energy and energy efficiency, and how solar energy technologies can reduce energy usage.

3. To help solar energy technologies enter the marketplace faster. This competition encourages the research and development of energy efficiency and energy production technologies.

4. To foster collaboration among students from different academic disciplines—including engineering and architecture students, who rarely work together until they enter the workplace.

5. To promote an integrated or "whole building design" approach to new construction. This approach differs from the traditional design/build process because the design team considers the interactions of all building components and systems to create a more comfortable building, save energy, and reduce environmental impact.

6. To demonstrate to the public the potential of Zero Energy Homes, which produce as much energy from renewable sources, such as the sun and wind, as they consume. Even though the home might be connected to a utility grid, it has net zero energy consumption from the utility provider.

The DOE website has a run-down on how the prototypes will be judged - ten categories, of course - and particulars on dates and location of the event.

http://www.solardecathlon.org/about.html

And check back with the NAV blog every Wednesday for reports on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's entry - BeauSoleil - as they progress from design to construction. Scroll down for past Wednesday updates. http://www.beausoleilhome.org/

Food For Thought

This week's newspaper column:

It may be time to change from fossil fuel back to solar power – down on the farm.

Since World War II, American farming has morphed from small family farms, where the planting and husbandry of diverse crops and animals was the norm, to monoculture mega-farms where one crop per year grows fencerow to fencerow.

The federal government facilitated this transition with subsidies to single-crop farmers at the expense of diversity. Old MacDonald, bowing to financial pressure, threw out all the verses and just planted corn.

There’s no doubt that food prices have been reduced as a result of this policy, but at what cost? Most of Old MacDonald’s fellow farmers are now out of a job, and our high-fat, empty-calorie, highly-processed food supply is responsible for a multitude of health problems. Obesity - contributing to an increase in chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and cancer – is a byproduct of our modern-day food supply.

On the traditional farm where natural methods are employed, animal waste replenishes nutrients in the soil necessary for growing vitamin and mineral-rich crops eliminating the need for petroleum-based fertilizers. Crop rotation and year-round planting keep the insect population in check so large amounts of pesticides are unnecessary. Diversity of plant and animal life, aided by photosynthesis (or solar power, if you will) is what American writer and farmer Wendell Berry referred to as nature’s “elegant solution.

Ironically, removing animals from the farm and the absence of crop diversity turned this elegant solution into two inelegant problems - depleted fertility of the land, and pollution and disease generated from the waste and unsanitary conditions in the feedlot.

Once-cheap fossil fuel fertilizers and pesticides are now as essential to farming as the tractor. So as the price of oil rises, so does the cost of food. And with the ushering in of large-scale centralized farming, food is now routinely shipped cross-country further exacerbating our dependence on fossil fuels.

As recently as the late 1800’s, more than half of the US population lived and worked on farms. Today, less than one percent of our population is involved with farming. To put that in perspective, more people are locked up in jails in this country than call themselves farmers. Traditional farm belts are losing population as children of farm families move away to find “a better job.”

Natural farming is certainly more complex, labor intensive and time-consuming than the current way of doing things. Ending Washington’s subsidy of unsustainable farming practices would be a start. What if, instead of promoting fossil fuel-based farming, we supported solar-based farming by training millions of “Young MacDonalds” how to farm the land naturally?

The benefit: a boom in green-collar jobs, a healthier food supply, less dependence on foreign oil, lower medical costs, and a greater appreciation for the land. Maybe it’s time to move from agribusiness back to agriculture.