UAB Briefs: Big-time solar, really old Alabama fossils, breast health honor
Welcome to another installment of UAB Briefs, in which we keep track of interesting people and events on campus.
Look for UAB Briefs at ironcity.ink on Fridays.
Know people, places and programs at UAB campus that deserve a mention? Email Iron City Ink at sydney@starnespublishing.com and jchambers@starnespublishing.com.
Going solar big-time
The University of Alabama at Birmingham is now home to the largest solar-energy system in the Magic City. The 100-panel array on top of the UAB Campus Recreation Center was installed by Vulcan Solar Power and can be seen from Red Mountain.
“This is our first commercial-scale solar installation,” said Julie Price, UAB sustainability coordinator, in a news release.
Some smaller solar projects have been done on campus in the past but nothing on this scale.
In fact, the sheer size and visibility of the installation may help generate some useful public discussion of environmental issues, according to Price. “It is a great pinnacle project that will open the door for us to engage people about solar energy and other facets of sustainability,” she said.
The installation is big enough to power four or five homes or one small business and will help save the university an estimated $600 per month in utility costs.
In addition, students and faculty members on campus will be able to use the installation for classroom activities and research projects, and UAB Emergency Management and other departments will use weather sensors on the system.
“We are treating our campus as a living lab, where we can incubate new technologies and monitor their performance,” Price said. “We are using our buildings, not just to have classes or for patient care, but to learn from them and try new things.”
The new system supports efforts by UAB to become “one of the most sustainable urban campuses in the country,” the release states.
UAB Briefs sat down with with Price this week to find out more about the new installation, the possibility of additional solar projects and what a sustainable campus may look like in the future.
How does a solar installation qualify as “commercial-scale”?
The only difference is the size—a residential system is smaller since the electricity consumption is smaller. A business, or large university building like the Rec Center, uses a lot more power, so a larger system is needed to meet the demand. However, our new system is more of an example system, so it’s still not big enough to meet the full demand of the Rec Center. It’s larger than a residential installation though.
Why is it important to engage the community regarding solar energy and sustainability?
It’s important for everyone to be engaged in how we can apply a lens of sustainability to our everyday life at home, at work and in the community. Growing world population and increased resource consumption – everyone wants a home, car, air conditioning, meat to eat, and there are over seven billion people on the planet and growing – challenge the ability of our planet to support our lifestyles. If we want future generations to have the same quality of life as we enjoy (or better), we have to be conscious about our resource use, waste production, etc.
What are some of the classes or departments that will likely use the solar array learning opportunity?
The primary courses will be in the School of Engineering, particularly in mechanical and electrical engineering. However, other classes in public health, government and business, for example, can use the installation’s costs, returns and applicable government and utility policies to examine the ways we can best meet our energy needs.
“We are treating our campus as a living lab,” you said. Why is that important?
The UAB Facilities Division has committed to not only building, operating and maintaining our buildings to support the many needs of UAB, like residential life, classroom and office buildings, research and patient care, but also to use our building and grounds to test new technologies and learn from them. This engages our UAB staff, faculty, students and the surrounding community.
Are there other solar projects planned or under discussion for the campus?
As part of our comprehensive energy plan, every building has been evaluated for efficiency improvements, and we are incrementally performing upgrades that save money and reduce energy consumption and emissions. We are also setting some ambitious sustainability goals as part of our five-year strategic sustainability plan, and perhaps additional solar power will be among those goals.
What is the long-term benefit of UAB working toward sustainability?
Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
What will large campuses like UAB look like from a sustainability standpoint in 5 or 10 years? What’s the future?
Bike lanes, composting, interdisciplinary curriculum, green building technologies, and more.
For more information about sustainability efforts on campus, go to uab.edu/sustainability.
Women chose, UAB honored
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so perhaps it’s appropriate that the UAB Breast Health Center has received a 2016 Women’s Choice Award as one of the best facilities of its type in America, based on clinical excellence and female patient satisfaction.
The Women’s Choice Award is a referral source designed to help women make smart choices about the healthcare facilities they use, according to a UAB news release.
The Breast Health Center, located at The Kirklin Clinic, is part of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The award is “a wonderful honor” for UAB, “especially since it comes from women in our community and across the nation who have rated us based on the exceptional patient care and treatment they have received,” said Dr. Helen Krontiras, a surgical oncologist and the Breast Health Center’s co-director.
Once patients are diagnosed with breast cancer, they meet that same day with an entire medical team – including medical, radiation and surgical oncologists – to ask questions and talk about treatment options.
“We know now that breast cancer is not a one-size-fits-all disease,” Krontiras said. “A multidisciplinary approach is key to assuring the appropriate plan is implemented for each individual patient.”
According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the second most common form of cancer among women, with about 4,000 new cases diagnosed in Alabama each year.
To learn more about breast cancer, visit www.uabmedicine.org/breastcancer.
To see a complete list of Women’s Choice Award winners, click here.
Dude, that’s like a really old turtle
A UAB graduate student has helped prove that some 80-million-year-old fossils found in Alabama are from an ancient species of sea turtle that is the oldest known member of the lineage that gave rise to all modern sea turtles.
Researchers from the Department of Biology – Drew Gentry, a biology doctoral student, served as the lead – used two turtle skeletons and some other specimens stored at Birmingham’s McWane Science Center to show the links between the ancient turtles and their modern descendants, according to a UAB news release.
The research was published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology in September.
The fossils belong to Ctenochelys (tee-no-key-lees) acris, a turtle that lived in the shallow, subtropical sea that once covered most of Alabama.
Before this research, so little evidence for C. acris had been found that most paleontologists doubted the species was real.
The McWane fossils also provide insights into the evolution of modern sea turtles, including the endangered green sea turtle.
“Represented today by only seven living species, sea turtles were once one of the most diverse lineages of marine reptiles,” Gentry said. “Before the cataclysm that claimed the dinosaurs, there may have been dozens of specialized species of sea turtle living in different oceanic habitats around the world.”
The fossils were discovered in 1986 and given to the old Red Mountain Museum in Birmingham. The McWane Science Center was founded in 1998 by the merger of the Red Mountain Museum and the Discovery Place children’s museum.
The paleontological and archaeological collection at McWane is one of the largest in the Southeast. “We are always making discoveries from the specimens housed at McWane that give us new respect for the individuals who contributed to this collection,” Gentry said.