Students Design Award-Winning Green Building with Hydrogen

University of Waterloo claims top prize for the Hydrogen Student Design Contest

WASHINGTON, DC - Thursday, April 9, 2009 - The Hydrogen Education Foundation announced today the top winners of the 2008-09 Hydrogen Student Design Contest. The University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Canada won the Grand Prize, while two different teams from the Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan claimed honorable mentions. This year's Hydrogen Student Design Contest challenged teams of university students from around the world to design a green student center powered by hydrogen for the State University of New York - Farmingdale Campus, using a theoretical budget of $28 million dollars.

Teams of students from Canada, Turkey and the U.S. worked for over 6-months to develop detailed designs to show how hydrogen products, which are for sale today, can be used to create a green student center. Although the focus of this year's design was specific to the planned SUNY-Farmingdale Student Center, the winning teams designed systems that can be used in student centers and similar buildings around the world.

The Grand Prize design from the University of Waterloo featured a three-level, 76,000 square feet student center, powered primarily by renewable energy produced from solar, wind, and biomass resources. Hydrogen was used to alleviate the challenges associated with the intermittent solar and wind resources by using daily and seasonal excess electricity in an electrolyzer to make hydrogen from water. As long as hydrogen is stored, it can be used on-demand to power the building when the primary electricity generation cannot meet the building's demand. The Waterloo design also used hydrogen to fuel a campus vehicle.

"The judges of this year's Hydrogen Student Design Contest were thrilled to see students show how today's hydrogen products can increase the value of renewable energy by addressing the irregular supply challenges associated with wind and solar energy," said Patrick Serfass, Director for the Hydrogen Education Foundation. "The designs the students submitted to this Contest represent the future of our built environment."

Since 2004 the Hydrogen Education Foundation's Hydrogen Student Design Contest has challenged teams
of university-level students from around the world to develop and design hydrogen systems for real world use. Although nothing is built during the Contest, the Grand Prize winning hydrogen fueling station design from 2004 and the power park design in 2005 each attracted the funding necessary for actual development and implementation. That fueling station opened in California in September 2008.

This year's Contest would not have been possible without support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Chevron, American Wind Power and Hydrogen, NYSERDA, Fuel Cell Energy, and the State University of New York - Farmingdale. As part of their award, the team from the University of Waterloo received an all-expenses paid trip to Columbia, SC for the NHA Conference and Hydrogen Expo in Columbia, SC to present their design as a keynote address. For a complete list of the submissions, and to see the designs, visit www.HydrogenContest.org.

About the Hydrogen Student Design Contest
Since 2004, the HEF Hydrogen Student Design Contest has challenged multi-disciplinary teams of university students to apply their creativity and academic skills in the areas of design, engineering, economics, environmental science, business and marketing to the hydrogen industry. The contest is open to current undergraduate or graduate students in the U.S. and abroad and has engaged over 500 students in the design of hydrogen systems since its inception. If you are interested in supporting the next Hydrogen Student Design Contest, or would like to find out more about the designs from previous years, please visit www.HydrogenContest.org or contact Kyle Gibeault at 202-223-5547.

About the Hydrogen Education Foundation
The Hydrogen Education Foundation is the charitable, education-focused arm of the National Hydrogen Association which administers three hallmark programs: the H2 & You outreach program, the Hydrogen Student Design Contest, and the H-Prize Competition. www.HydrogenEducationFoundation.org

About the National Hydrogen Association
The National Hydrogen Association (NHA) is the premier hydrogen trade organization led by over 100 companies dedicated to supporting the transition to hydrogen. Efforts are focused on education and outreach, policy, safety and codes and standards. Since 1989, the NHA has served as a catalyst for information exchange and cooperative projects and continues to provide the setting for mutual support among industry, research and government organizations. The NHA Conference and Hydrogen Expo is the largest hydrogen conference in the U.S. and the longest-running annual hydrogen conference in the world. www.HydrogenAssociation.org

Hydrogen Education Foundation
1211 Connecticut Ave NW
Suite 600
Washington, D.C. 20036

CONTACT:
Kyle Gibeault
gibeaultk@hydrogenassociation.org
202.223.5547 x327

This release was published on openPR.