Chinese Delegates to Visit NJIT to Learn of Sustainability, Solar Energy
A delegation from Ningguo in the People’s Republic of China will visit NJIT Nov. 18, 2010 to learn more about sustainable urban living and solar energy. The delegation would like to transform Ningguo into China’s “Solar City.” The trip follows a visit this past July from an NJIT delegation led by Donald H. Sebastian, PhD, senior vice president for research and development, in which an agreement was signed with city officials to help them achieve their solar goals. Ningguo is located in eastern China in the province of Anhui. The city has a population of 380,000.
Zheng Dong Sun, economic counselor of Ningguo People’s Government will lead the dignitaries. Accompanying him will be Wang Pu, vice mayor of Ningguo People’s Government, Tang Junhuai, general manager of Ningguo Huapu Building Material Co. Ltd, Zhang Jinlong, general manager of Anhui Ruitai New Material Science and Technology Co. Ltd, Wu Yi, director of Ningguo Economy and Information Committee, and Yang Anfeng, director of Ningguo Tourism Bureau.
The program will include a tour of NJIT facilities and culminate at 4:30 p.m. in Eberhardt Hall on the NJIT campus for remarks followed by a reception.
(ATTENTION EDITORS: To attend, call Sheryl Weinstein, 973-596-3436.)
“This is an exciting opportunity for us to work with a city that has set aggressive goals for renewable energy use. NJIT is deep in expertise on sustainable urban living and we see many benefits in deepening relations between our university, Newark and Ningguo,” said Sebastian.
Recent solar energy initiatives at NJIT have included:
NJIT received last May from Apollo Solar Energy, Inc.of Chengdu, China, a three-year, $1.5 million grant to establish a solar research center at NJIT. The company mines and refines tellurium (Te) and high-purity tellurium-based metals for specific segments of the global electronic materials market.
In July, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded NJIT $468,495 to create a comprehensive series of four courses to train and teach mechanical engineers in the region how to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings. The NJIT Center for Building Knowledge is organizing and running the training sessions.
This past fall, NJIT and Building Media Inc. (BMI), a DuPont subsidiary, will lead one of 15 research and deployment partnerships to help dramatically improve the energy efficiency of American homes ─ the Building America Retrofit Alliance (BARA). The 15 teams, appointed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), will receive a total of up to $30 million for the initial 18 months to deliver innovative energy efficiency strategies to the residential market and address barriers to bringing high-efficiency homes within reach of all.
NJIT students now live in a state-of-the-art, energy efficient, renewable energy building, thanks to $1.6 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The university’s Oak Residence Hall upgrade project has been approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and the U.S. Department of Energy as one of seven projects in the $20.6 million State Energy Program.