Bonnie hugs TRU's new green building

BEd student Bonnie Klohn was among the 400 post-secondary students from 35 countries who gathered to discuss global energy issues in Vancouver at the International Student Energy Summit (ISES) June 9th to 11th, hosted by UBC. As a member of Team Synergy, one of six teams of students selected by FortisBC and ISES organizers for the FortisBC Community Energy Challenge, she shared a $4000 cash prize for designing the winning community energy system using clean technology and green energy sources.

Four-person teams simulating companies bidding on a district energy project competed in four challenges, to develop a mock community energy system complete with innovative energy sources such as waste water treatment facilities or pulp mills. The first challenge, a research essay, had to be completed before the conference began. For the second challenge, teams had to decide where they would harness energy, how their energy pipeline would run through the map of a hypothetical town, how much the project would cost and what the payback time was. The third challenge was to create a video explaining the team’s district energy system. For the final challenge, Team Synergy put together a presentation on what sort of renewable fuel they would recommend for a new fleet of city transit buses. Moving on as finalists, Bonnie’s team presented their community energy system to a panel of energy expert judges which included Mike Harcourt and officials from FortisBC, who along with viewers, selected Team Synergy to win the cash prize.

ISES isorganized by a team of post-secondary students through the University of British Columbia’s Sustainability Initiative. This year’s summit is the second in a series of biennial conferences to take place in different cities around the world.

Team Synergy, consisting of Thomas Butler, Geoff de Ruiter, Bonnie, and Sunny Yang won $4000 for their energy saving proposal about district energy systems.