Santa Fe Community College Opens Algae Lab in Oshara Village
Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) recently broke ground on the new Sustainable Technologies Center. This multimillion-dollar LEED certified training facility will teach the next generation of American workers how to fill the Green jobs we need today including Alternative Energy installation, Bio-Fuels production, home testing and weatherization and community building. Next to the SFCC lies the confluence of all of these technologies, Oshara Village. Using designs and technologies that tread more lightly upon the Earth, the Oshara model brings together a walkable design, super efficient structures, onsite energy generation and 100% water reclamation. Oshara is a testing ground for many of the technologies taught at the college.
A study carried out by New Village Institute (NVI) found that using sustainable technologies, many of which are taught at SFCC today, you can make a real difference in our environment. Jennifer Hanan of NVI said “a family choosing sustainability and living in a walkable community could reduce energy use 58.7% while saving money and improving their quality of life. This translates to a reduction of 26,000 pounds of CO2 per year.” (See study at newvillageinstitute.org) With the addition of Photovoltaic panels, some homes are net exporters of energy right now and it has become surprisingly affordable. The first true Zero Energy Home in Oshara is nearing completion with a grand opening scheduled for October 11th and 2 more energy rated homes are set to be complete around the same time. A number of builders, building inspectors and students from SFCC have already toured these homes under construction to learn about these revolutionary building techniques soon to be mandated in Santa Fe and around the country.
Oshara Village and the Santa Fe Community College have worked together on a number of projects including an energy efficient home in Oshara built by 13 at risk teens who are learning how to build the next generation of healthy and efficient homes while attending college. And now an Algae research laboratory and classroom has opened in a retail storefront on Oshara Boulevard. Until the Sustainable Technologies Center opens on the SFCC campus, students and staff will look for the most prolific strains of Algae for producing gas and diesel. Ethanol production and bio-diesel from plants will also be examined at their facility within the 1.3 million square foot Oshara Sustainable Enterprise Zone. Charles Bensinger, director of the SFCC Alternative Fuels Program said” I am looking forward to a good semester of research and experimentation. This class is filled to capacity with students training for Green jobs in the emerging New Mexico biofuels industry.”
Oshara Village, and Santa Fe Community College are creating a model of what a “Green Future” might look like and how we might retrain our workers to get there. (Google: “Obama Future Today”)
Contact: Alan Hoffman 505-316-0449
Email address: village@newvillage.com
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