Associate Professor Liling Huang and Professor Duminda Wijesekera map out project plans with students. Photo provided
Harnessing the Sun’s Power Imagine a day when canopies of solar panels across campus generate enough electricity to meet all of Mason’s power needs. That’s the dream of seven senior engineering students and faculty advisor Liling Huang, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The group created the foundation for this vision with their senior design project. “We designed a microgrid for the Fairfax Campus, which is a localized power system that works alongside the main power grid,” says electrical engineering senior Annam Khan, the project manager. A microgrid is a defined, contained power system, consisting of its own electric loads and sources, she says. “If it is built, one day it would allow Mason to produce the energy it consumes.” The proposed microgrid would include renewable energy sources, such as solar canopies built over parking lots and parking decks, as well as battery-energy storage systems and electric-vehicle charging stations. Natural gas-fired generators are also a possibility, Khan says. This plan would allow the university to decrease its carbon footprint, become greener, and decrease its electricity bill, Khan says. “Our project takes a big step in tackling the idea of the future power grid at George Mason.”
12 VOLGENAU SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING ANNUAL REPORT 2020
