Texas Center for Applied Technology Addresses LSBA on Today’s Sustainability and Energy Technologies
9/17/2009
LEON SPRINGS, TEXAS, SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 – Leon Springs Business Association held its monthly mixer today with guest speakers from the Texas Center for Applied Technology (TCAT). Representatives from TCAT discussed activities of their Energy and Environmental Sustainability Labs. Activities presented include the application of currently available technologies to address energy and environmental practices in military, civil, and private industry.
TCAT operates under the Texas A&M University system. With offices in San Antonio, the team provides quality research and practical engineering solutions to critical state and national needs. As a state-run, non-profit organization, TCAT brings together expertise to achieve solutions to real-world problems.
Susan Stuver, Ph.D., heads up the Laboratory for Environmental Sustainability. San Antonio area projects discussed by Stuver include Mission Verde Center. The center is billed as a one-stop center for green jobs training, science and sustainability education, and green businesses. Mission Verde Center will be an example of today’s practical and proven technologies showing how dwellings, neighborhoods, and communities can benefit from sustainability practices. The center will engage people, specifically students of green practices, by exhibiting sustainable energy and water infrastructure in operation. Another project presented by Stuver was the development of an ecological risk assessment tool to assist with remediation in preserving wildlife and landscape. This tool is used to correlate ecological risks with established concentration levels. It can quickly determine if a full ecological risk assessment is required, thereby reducing unnecessary costs. Using this tool, and their vast experience, the Sustainability Lab has helped developers work within the needs of both landowner and conservationists.
Mike Martin, Manager of the Brooks Energy and Sustainability Laboratory, added discussions on a broad range of his practice with fuel cell, solar/thermal, cool roof, energy storage, and wind energy technologies. Specific projects, with measured success, include cool roof practices saving 12 to 20-percent on electric consumption, and an advanced water desalination pilot project for the city of Laredo. Martin added that the water project was expected to provide a 2:1 cost savings over traditional purification methods and, equally import, is a scalable design. Also, Martin emphasized to participants that today’s battery technology can be as much as 98-percent efficient. This allows for cost-effective storage of wind and solar power. Compared to the low 65-precent efficiency of the typical car battery, today’s battery technologies have many practical applications.
Leon Springs Business Association is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Leon Springs Business Association was formed, in 2006, expressly to promote a growing and supportive business community in Leon Springs, Texas. The organization’s purpose is to foster the exchange of ideas that relate to preservation and enhancement of living and doing business in the community of Leon Springs.
For more information on Texas Center for Applied Technology, contact San Antonio Operations Director Skip Mills at 210-633-2427 ext. 229, or visit http://tcat.tamu.edu/.
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