UC Riverside recently received a $2 million grant for the Center of Environmental Research and Technology (CERT) for electric vehicle initiatives. Engineers at UC Riverside intend to use solar energy to provide power for electric vehicles in hopes of promoting environmentally sound forms of transportation.
South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), including a number of other public and private agencies, is promoting the development of vehicle charging stations, advanced energy storage, an electric trolley and a grid management system to provide clean energy with less air pollution, as stated by the UC Riverside Newsroom.
The integration and expansion of electric vehicles would substantially reduce pollutants and incurred costs to the university, as well as encourage the practice of clean, renewable energy sources in the greater Riverside area.
“We’re pleased that AQMD recognized the benefits of this project,” added Reza Abbaschian, dean of the Bourns College of Engineering. “This is yet another example of our commitment to smart-grid energy solutions that integrate solar energy generation, battery storage, and distribution that are at the core of the mission of CE-CERT and our new Winston Chung Global Energy Center.”
Recent ventures in the past year, especially those made possible by the donations of entrepreneur Winston Chung, have allowed UC Riverside to develop innovative approaches to a cleaner environment.
Approved funding on Jan. 6 has allowed the university to install two megawatts of solar arrays and two megawatt hours of lithium battery storage systems at three locations on and near the UC Riverside campus, according to the UC Riverside Newsroom. “This initiative will also allow us to install 1 MW of solar, 1 MWh of battery storage, multiple EV charging stations, including one UCR trolley conversion from diesel to electric, and electric power distribution and control,” stated UC Riverside professor and CE-CERT scientist Sadrul Ula.
The recent grant for clean energy will fund 1 million watts of solar photo-voltaic (PV) at UC Riverside along with 1 million watt hours of battery storage for the electric vehicle charging stations. “The successful deployment of this integrated renewable energy generation and energy storage project for electric transportation will place UC Riverside at the leading edge of advanced distributed energy management,” concluded Ula.
