The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has chosen the University of Central Florida as a national example of the best green initiatives happening at colleges and universities nationwide, according to a UCF news release.
UCF is the only university in Florida DOE is visiting in its current national tour, UCF said. It will begin Tuesday, March 2, at an 11 a.m. press conference featuring UCF’s solar carport plug-in facility used to charge electric vehicles. At the event, the Ford Motor Company will make its Florida debut of its new hybrid version of the Ford Escape. The visit will last until March 4.
The DOE representative will see a variety of green projects at UCF, including the thermal energy storage facility which UCF says will save the school $700,000 per year in energy costs, the green roof on UCF’s Student Union building, the UCF student housing energy savings competition, “Kill-A-Watt,” UCF’s solar-powered fleet car, the solar panels installed on the Engineering I building, the Florida Solar Energy Center at UCF’s Cocoa campus, and award-winning student research projects such as a wind turbine maximizer and a portable solar energy collector.
