PSU and PGE plan partnership

A simple request for long-term support turned into a partnership between Portland State and PGE.

 According to Kevin Reynolds, professor and chair of the chemistry department, when Portland State President Wim Wiewel asked for assistance from Portland General Electric with the renovation of Science Building 2, he was probably just hoping for a donation of some kind.

“But PGE came back and wanted to talk about something bigger,” he said.

It turned out to be the memorandum of understanding between the university and PGE, which was signed during a ceremony last Tuesday by Wiewel and Jim Piro, president and CEO of PGE.

“To meet the challenges of Oregon’s energy future and serve our customers in the most sustainable, cost-effective way possible, strategic alliances with forward-thinking institutions like PSU are more critical than ever,” Piro said in a press release.

“Working together with Portland State, we will train tomorrow’s energy leaders and develop smart, sustainable solutions for powering our region,” he said.

According to David Santen, director of communications for sustainability initiatives at PSU, the memorandum is essentially a document acknowledging that the two institutions share a common vision of creating a sustainable regional economy for the Portland metro region.

“PSU and PGE, as the largest urban university and the largest urban utility, respectively, bring complementary skills and interests to the partnership in service of that vision,” Santen said. “The [memorandum] means that we’re going to work together to address those challenges.”

Along with the memorandum, the PGE Foundation has awarded $50,000 to PSU in support of the partnership. The money is intended to establish the PGE Foundation Renewable Energy Research Laboratory.

According to Reynolds, this lab will be located on the third floor of Science Building 2, which is currently under construction.

Next fall, Erik Johansson will take a position as a chemistry faculty member and manager of the lab.

“Johansson is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at [the] California Institute of Technology and a member of Nathan Lewis’ research team. Nate Lewis is highly regarded in the field of artificial photosynthesis,” Santen said.

Two main areas of focus in the memorandum are urban mobility and integration of energy and sustainable design.

“A couple of applications for these areas include electric vehicles and developing dependable renewable energy sources,” Santen said.

He said that one of Johansson’s main areas of research is in energy storage. For researchers, a major challenge for renewable energy is having the energy available when it’s needed, and being able to store it when it’s not needed.

“There is lots of solar energy in the daytime, but not so much at night,” Santeen said. “With wind, there [is a lot of energy] when the wind blows, but not so much when it doesn’t. So, you can see where being able to store energy surpluses might be of some use.”

According to the press release, the Portland metro region is positioned to be the leading U.S. launch-market for electric vehicles.  PSU and PGE will lead EV planning and education events, as in the past when they sponsored the EV Road Map conference in 2009.

 This June, PSU and PGE plan to sponsor a seminar featuring keynote speaker, Robbie Diamond, who is the executive director of the Electrification Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to mass deployment of EVs.

Also, with financial and technical support from PGE, PSU is once again offering a two-term course through the Hatfield School of Government titled “Planning the Smart Grid for Sustainable Communities.” 

This class is offered to graduate students and taught by a trans-disciplinary team of faculty members, including Jeff Hammerlund, Linda Rankin and Conrad Eustis. According to Dr. Craig Shinn, associate director of PSU’s Executive Leadership Institute, these professors are adjunct faculty with “academic qualifications and deep professional experience in policy, engineering and economics.”

“The course draws graduate students from across the disciplines and from the professional community with a goal of understanding the cutting-edge issues related to planning for [the] smart grid in sustainable communities,” Shinn said.

According to the press release, PGE has also contributed to a National Science Foundation-funded project at PSU, which continues to study how solar panels and green roofs can be installed together on buildings to improve energy generation and efficiency.

“Rather than just looking for philanthropy, we are looking to work with business and other partners to work jointly on research, education, and demonstration projects that serve our mutual interest, as well as those of Portland and Oregon,” Wiewel said in a press release. “This project is a perfect example of that and we look forward to a very productive relationship.”

To see the memorandum of understanding in its entirety, visit www.pdx.edu/sustainability/partnerships/pge.