University President Seidel and Governor Gordon endorsed the 9H Research Foundation last Thursday despite impending budget cuts. They both attended the company’s event held at the Gateway Center last week.
In light of the recent budget cuts, surmounting to $20 million per year, the university is seeking opportunities to modernize revenue streams for both the longevity of the state and the university.
The 9H Research Foundation is a non-profit organization who seeks to modernize the Wyoming economy by moving towards clean energy. So far, the company has received over 2,000 solar panels and is in the installation process.
One of their goals is to provide affordable clean energy to attract industry to the state–in line with the governor’s WIN initiative and supportive to the state’s economy amidst the budget reductions.
The endorsement from both leaders is significant because it shows support for Wyoming’s clean energy potential.
The 9H Research Foundation anticipates donating $10 million worth of energy to the university over the lifetime of the project. The Research Foundation also has significant plans for sponsoring and supporting student solar projects, through hosting more competitions and hiring student interns.
Paul Bonifas, Director of Operations at 9H Research Foundation, said “we’ll monetize the electricity produced by the solar panels to create a world class research center for the university and also internships for students, scholarships and the development of an energy engineering curriculum.”
The 12,000 acre 9H Ranch is located northwest of town where they plan on building the facility and putting the solar panels.
This event was significant being the first in-person event held at the university since the start of the pandemic. There were an estimated 100 attendees at the event, though social distancing and mask wearing measures were still in place.
At the event, 9H Research Foundation gifted two prizes of $2500 to engineering students who participated in their senior design competition. Participants were tasked with creating an energy storage plan and designing the full solar facility including information about what solar panels to use and how they will be set up.
Rhett Cook, a Mechanical Engineering senior and one of the winners of the competition, said “we were asked to consider basically all real world dilemmas an engineer would have to consider.”
“How are we going to keep energy efficiency? How are we going to keep costs under control? What cutting edge technology can we use? What materials are available?
“I was surprised when we won. It was a lot of work. I knew the other engineers on the other teams and I knew they definitely weren’t slacking. It was super cool,” said Cook.
Karla Contreras, a Chemical Engineering senior who lead the other winning team, said “our project focused on lithium ion batteries, vanadium flow batteries and liquid air energy storage.
“What made our project special was our exploration of liquid air energy storage because it’s such a new technology and 9H wants to use innovative technologies.”
