Tarrant County College South Campus,
Center of Excellence for Energy Technology (CEET)
5301 Campus Drive
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One of only two non-residential LEED Platinum buildings in Tarrant County, the Tarrant County College CEET features a custom designed solar canopy, a wind turbine, geothermal heating and cooling and an outdoor garden bioswale (rain garden).Inside the building, exposed, color-coded mechanical infrastructure aids with teaching building systems technologies….mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems are visible to students so they can view what is typically hidden behind walls and ceilings. |
Solar 101 presentation
Come for a Solar 101 briefing at 10:00am where you can learn how home solar power systems work and how much they cost. After the Solar 101, visitors can tour the Energy Technology Center and the Heating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Technology Lab. Visitors are then encouraged to tour homes in the area for solar owners perspective.
All Saints’ Solar Car Team will be displaying their solar car
The All Saints’ Solar Car team is an opportunity for students to be exposed to a real-life engineering and design project. Each year students raise funds, design, build and race a solar powered car. All Saints has participated in 6 races sponsored by the Solar Car Challenge Foundation. This last summer the team won their first first-place trophy for the Electric Vehicle Division in a race from Fort Worth, Tx to Palmdale, CA. Students also learn many useful business skills such as project management, budgeting, and teamwork. The Solar Car Challenge has been named one of the top project-based STEM initiatives in the country, helping motivate students in Science, Engineering and Alternative Energy.
Arlington ISD STEM Solar Racing
STEM Solar Racing is part of the Arlington ISD STEM Academy at Martin High School. The team formed the fall of 2017. The students started with attending the workshops provide by the Solar Car Challenge and fundraising. They began the build of our car the fall of 2018 and were able to race at Texas Motor Speedway this past July of 2019. The team finished third in the classic division. Our team is a mixture of freshman through senior, boys and girls. The students have learned many valuable skills in this project based learning event from welding, to electrical design, to marketing, money management, and so much more. The students are excited to be a part of this program and look forward to building more solar cars.
Renewable energy features
Solar PV
kW: 138 kW
Installation Date : September 2015
Installer: Axium Solar
Equipment
416 SunPower 327 W panels
SMA TriPower inverters
Canopy-mounted array
Wind
kW: 10 kW
Installer: Bergey
Geothermal
Installation date: September 2015
Green features
- LEED Platinum certification
- Passive Solar Design: Solar panels provide one third of the building’s energy during peak load. The panels have been incorporated into the public courtyard design as trellises and provide shade to its occupants.
- Geothermal heating and cooling
- Low water use landscape: Native plantings are used extensively. Sustainable water management begins in the public courtyard, which is composed of permable pavers and bioretention swales that remove pollutants and help improve absorption before slowly releasing water to irrigate landscaping and drain into the municipal stormwater system.
- Daylight harvesting reduces use of artificial lights – the building wings form an “H” shape to allow daylight to reach further into the interior.
- LED lighting
Host Comments:
The Center of Excellence for Energy Technology (CEET) at the South Campus of Tarrant County College in Fort Worth is a beautiful building that works. Landscaped with bioswales and native plantings, wind turbines, with walkways shaded by solar panels, the Center demonstrates energy technology and water conservation to students pursuing careers in heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration technologies (HART).
Since opening in September 2015, CEET has housed the Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Technology, construction Management, and Oil and Gas Technology, and Renewable Energy programs. The Center is designed to accommodate new programs as they develop, such as geothermal, wind generation, active solar, and oil and gas technologies. To reach a wider audience, the building is available for tours and public events in the Quantum Room, offering a high-visibility learning experience for students, instructors and community members.
The Center is the first higher education project in Fort Worth to receive the distinction of LEED Platinum certification.
The Center’s interior reflects the embrace of developing technologies and changing learning environments with an array of flexibility and innovation. Students study building systems through open ceilings and see-through walls. Pipes, ductwork, and other equipment are labeled and color-coded by function.
Addressing the triple bottom line economic, environmental, and human benefit, the Center is the first new building at the South Campus of this community college since the campus was built 50 years ago. Tarrant County College is a public two-year college with campuses in Fort Worth and surrounding communities. With more than 100,000 students on six campuses, TCC is one of the 20 largest higher education institutions in the United States based on annual enrollment. The HART program is expected to serve 600-1000 students a year.
Where to visit next?
Here is a list of other DFW Solar Tour sites close to here: