File photo courtesy of Rose-Human Echoes
Dr. Richard Haut, Rose-Hulman mechanical engineer Class of 1974, returned to Rose-Hulman on Wednesday, October 22, 2008. In his return, he presented upon sustainability in the engineering field of today and tomorrow.
On October 22nd, the Rose-Hulman Sustainability Club celebrated Sustainability Day, a day devoted to educating students and faculty about various sustainable technologies that could possibly make the world a greener, better place. The various displays and activities around campus culminated in a lecture by Rose-Hulman alumnus Dr. Richard Haut, entitled America’s Energy Future: Balancing Energy with Nature. Currently, Dr. Haut is the principal investigator on a number of sustainability projects for the Houston Advanced research center, but has twenty years experience with Exxon.
Essentially, Dr. Haut stated sustainability is the balance between human culture and all other living things. In an ideally sustainable world, humans would be able to achieve their desired standard of living with no impact on the environment. However, since this is not possible, all sustainability projects come down to the balance of planet, people, and prosperity. Sustainable technologies must simultaneously maintain the health of the planet, allow for a certain standard of living amongst its people, and be cost-effective. The challenge of sustainability is achieving all three of these objectives in a sensible balance.
In the United States today, Dr. Haut was sure to pint out that most energy comes from non-renewable resources, such as oil, coal, and natural gas. In the future, these will most likely continue to play an important role in energy consumption, and as a result, great effort is being spent on using these resources more efficiently. For example, a pilot project in Houston retrofitted a number of homes with better insulation and caulking, causing an average energy savings of 15% and increasing the efficiency of the home cooling systems. Also, new buildings are being constructed with efficiency in mind, such as the Bank of America building in New York City. The natural gas power plant is located in the basement of the building, and the heat generated by electricity generation is trapped, greatly increasing the energy efficiency of the building.
However, he went on to state new technologies to make use of renewable energy are also being developed. Wind energy is already on track to comprise 2% of the total energy used in the United States by 2015, and solar systems are already in use. However, the efficiency of such systems is limited (for example, solar panels are only about 15% efficient), and in order for such technologies to become commonplace, the price of oil must either become unreasonable, or a great stride forward must be made in technology.
Dr. Haut closed by explaining the idea that underlies sustainability: How will today’s action affect the lives of those seven generations in the future? Through pioneering research and more efficient use of today’s resources, we can build a better world, both for today and for the future.