Hampshire College grad seeks to use solar energy for recharging stations
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AMHERST - Beth Ferguson is looking to change the way people think about solar energy - one cell phone at a time.
The 1996 Hampshire College graduate was back this month, leading a three-week course for 16 Hampshire students on building and designing what she broadly calls a SolarPump: a blend of visual art, pragmatic design and clean energy production that aims to draw attention to the larger issue of renewable energy but which also recharges electric bicycles, cell phones, iPods, and other small devices.
For the last couple of years, Ferguson and some of her business collaborators have been displaying these movable, sun-powered charging stations on college campuses and city streets, at renewable energy fairs, music and arts festivals such as Lollapalooza, and other public venues.
Though her immediate goal is to raise greater awareness of solar energy and sustainability, Ferguson envisions a time when larger charging stations built along similar lines become a regular part of the country's energy infrastucture, with the ability to recharge electric cars and larger electric appliances via the sun.
"The idea right now is to make these as big and beautiful as we can, like a billboard," said Ferguson, 33, a Maine native who now runs an ecological design company in Austin, Texas. "It's a conversation starter - it's a way to get people talking about clean energy, and art is crucial to that, to getting people's attention. We're making the bridge between art and design."
Dallas Swindle, one of Ferguson's business collaborators who took part in the Hampshire College class, sees the gizmo as an educational tool.
"We're basically trying to elicit curiosity," Swindle said. "It's not about beating people over the head and saying "Oil is evil!'"
In addition to her design work, Ferguson has begun leading workshops and classes on designing solar charging stations, like the one held at Hampshire this month, an intercession course in which 14 students designed and built - using mostly recycled materials - what might be called a solar wagon.
It's a three-wheeled trailer on which students built a frame to hold four photovolatic panels aloft at a 43 degree angle. Underneath the panels, they placed the frame of an old stove found in a scrap heap by the college's physical plant; inside that frame are eight lead-acid batteries that are charged via the photovoltaic panels, after the solar power is filtered through an inverter that converts this direct current (DC) electricity to alternating current (AC).
The station can produce 2,500 watts of power, which Ferguson said is enough to charge about 50 laptop computers, or 800 cell phones, or 25 100-watt lightbulbs, to cite some examples.
Students decorated panels on the wagon with metal letters that say "Solar Plug-in Hampshire College." Beneath that title, one side of the wagon is festooned with planter boxes - made from recycled pieces of polypropolene - that will be used to grow tea leaves. The wagon also includes retractable tables that can be folded out, allowing people to sit at them and perhaps heat some water with an electric pot to make some tea, Ferguson said.
"We've had a lot of success where we've set these up by providing places for people to sit down while they charge up their phones or other devices," she said. "We want people to be able to hang out and talk about renewable energy ... they can see the practical way it can work."
Ferguson, who focused on environmental studies and ecological design when she was a Hampshire student, came up with the SolarPump idea while she was pursuing an MFA in design at the University of Texas at Austin. She'd bought an electric bicycle to get around campus, but because the vehicle looked more like a small, gas-powered scooter, the school's parking department kept giving her or threatening her with fines when she locked it to a bike rack or brought it to her studio to charge.
Though she resolved the situation with campus officials, the experience prompted her to design her first charging station, which she christened a SolarPump; she adopted the title because she housed the batteries inside vintage, refurbished gas station pumps that she found at a Texas auto salvage business. "I liked that retro look," she said, noting that users also were intrigued to see the counters on the old gas pumps running, tabulating voltage delivered instead of gasoline.
A representative from Austin's South by Southwest annual music festival saw her MFA thesis presentation on the SolarPump in 2009 and commissioned Ferguson to develop three for the musicfest, not just as a demonstration but to actually power some equipment. Since then, she has displayed them at several other sites in the U.S. and one in Denmark, and she said she has received inquiries from places such as Middlebury College in Vermont that want one of her charging stations. She has been commissioned also to set one up right outside Austin City Hall in February.
Ferguson and Swindle taught the class along with Hampshire College assistant professor of applied design Donna Cohn, at the school's Lemelson Center for design. Assistant Director Roxanne Finn notes the center also gave Ferguson a $1,500 award for her work. "What Beth is doing is very much in tune with our mission, so it made perfect sense for her to teach a class here," Finn said.
Cohn jokes that she'll probably now have to assume oversight of the college's new device and figure out where to place it on campus. "We'll want to move it around," she said.
Student Christopher Camp says he and the others who worked on the project are still trying to figure out how best to do that - perhaps by several people pulling it with ropes or straps. "One way or the other, we'll get it around," he said.
Video footage and photos of other SolarPump designs can be seen at soldesignlab.com.
Comments
Apologies
Hello, I am the Lily Erb from the photo that the above observer is concerned about. I now know that this was a dangerous way to be working with the bandsaw after becoming more experienced in the Lemelson shop. Safety is always a first in Lemelson and the shop supervisors are excellent at making sure that the students are being responsible about their safety. This was just a mistake that I made. I would appreciate it if the photo above would be taken out of use because of my mistake.
Thank you for your concerns.
safety first, please
The picture of student Lisa Erb using a band saw to cut a steel rod is very scary. She is a moment away from cutting off a couple of fingers if the piece slips or gets grabbed by the blade.
These young people are doing fascinating projects with an inspired professor, but even a freshman at Smith Vocational would know to put the steel piece "flat side down" on the saw table, and use a push block to feed the piece into the saw.