SUBMITTED PHOTO
Evan Gardner stands next to a concept for the Medicine Hat College Brooks Campus solar garden at its library, which he presented Friday, Nov. 29, 2019. Earlier this year, MHC Brooks Campus received a $100,000 grant from EBSCO to bring solar panels to its library.
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
Medicine Hat College students displayed their concepts Friday for using solar energy to build an enhanced community space at the Brooks Campus library.
The initiative is the result of a $100,000 grant from EBSCO Solar, of which MHC was the only Canadian recipient.
The grant’s purpose is to reduce electricity expenditures while promoting sustainable energy consumption at libraries.
Evan Gardner, a built environment engineering technology student, told the News this project is fitting for EBSCO.
“They normally do a lot of work with libraries, help manage journals and academic resources, so this is an opportunity for them to give back to the communities and support the institutions who are normally their customers,” said Gardner.
He says his project addresses some of the limitations of solar power in Brooks with an eye towards the long-term picture.
“Right now, it’s a fairly small project. You can’t do a whole lot with what we have there, in terms of buildings or things like that. But there’s also a lot of possibilities for the Brooks Campus to grow and develop, to provide additional resources and facilities for the larger community,” said Gardner.
His project has multiple phases.
“It starts out providing a small, sheltered outdoor area that we could use throughout the summer months for gatherings,” said Gardner. “It could be a facility to have lectures in a more outdoor environment for biology classes.”
But he also looks ahead to its possible future expansion – making it a “four seasons facility” by enclosing it.
This would open up the possibility for expansion by incorporating greenhouses, a library extension, “or other opportunities to grow the facility as the community grows around it.”
Clay Bos, MHC’s department chair of science and an instructor for first year students in the BEET program, says this was an ideal learning opportunity for his students.
“Our program really emphasizes human-centred design,” said Bos. “They worked on empathizing with the challenge, defining the problems and starting to create the solutions to those problems.”
In this case, the challenge was not just generating solar energy, but transforming it into a social enterprise.
“Rather than just creating solar, we’re creating community and a sustainable solution for this $100,000 grant we received, touching on the environmental, social and economic factors,” Bos said.
