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An Energy-Monitoring System
for Stanford University's Leslie Shao-ming Sun Field Station |
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by John Scofield, Associate Professor
of Physics |
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 When
I first came to Oberlin College from AT&T Bell Laboratories
in 1987, it never occurred to me that I might someday have the
freedom
to make a major change in my research field.
In graduate school and at Bell Labs I had studied noise in metallic thin films
and metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors, and investigated new ways for
fabricating thin metal coatings and superconducting yttrium barium copper oxide
(YBCO) thin films. During my first six years at Oberlin I continued research
in these areas. My research was very applied, bordering on electrical engineering.
Indeed, some of my research appeared in journals published by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Students with engineering interests
gravitated to my research program, and several of my former research students
earned graduate degrees in engineering fields.
With tenure attained and my first sabbatical ahead, I began to worry
less about the next grant and think a bit more outside the box. In
1993 I shifted directions and joined the thin-film photovoltaic (PV)
device group at the National
Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, to work
on copper-indium-diselenide (CIS) thin-film solar cells. I decided
to apply my expertise in semiconductor devices and thin-film materials
to investigate solar cells. This change was not as dramatic as it
appeared, since in my day-to-day research I used many of the same
fabrication and characterization techniques that I had been using
for years. I continue this work today in collaboration with the thin-film
photovoltaic group at Cleveland's NASA
Glenn Research Center
I first became interested in green buildings
in 1993, while I was on sabbatical leave at NREL. That spring, my
NREL research group moved into the newly constructed Solar
Energy Research Facility (SERF). This building was one of the
first to be highlighted by the Department of Energy in its High
Performance Building Program. This program now features approximately
60 buildings, including Oberlin's Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental
Studies.
Upon returning to Oberlin I joined the Environmental Studies Program
Committee during what proved to be the initial planning stage for
the Lewis Center. That spring I wrote my first
essay regarding that building, arguing that it should be located
on Lorain Street, opposite Wilder Hall, rather than on the Elm Street
site that was subsequently adopted.
In 1997 I began teaching Energy Generation and Usage, a course
that has evolved over the years into Introduction to Solar Energy
and, this semester, into two module courses, Energy Technology
I & II. In these courses students learned about the many ways
buildings use energy, and each year we conducted an energy audit of
a local building, most often a house in town. We conducted energy
audits of two Oberlin College buildings, the Wright Laboratory of
Physics in 1998, and, two years later, the newly constructed Lewis
Center. This latter investigation spurred another major shift in my
research.
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