by Amy Rose Davis

KLAMATH, FALLS - Building professionals and homeowners looking for help with designing and building renewable energy systems have a powerful ally in the Oregon Renewable Energy Center located at the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls.

OREC was founded in 2001 by two OIT professors. “We’ve grown from just those two professors to about seven people now,” says professor Bob Rogers, one of the founders of the center.

OREC has three primary areas of focus. First, in 2005, the center and OIT began offering a bachelor’s in renewable energy systems. “It’s the first degree program like this in the United States and only about the third like this in the world,” Rogers says. “We teach it on our Portland campus. It’s an engineering degree, and graduates are able to go immediately into the solar industry.”

The program combines mechanical and electrical engineering fundamentals with upper-division coursework in renewable energy and is designed to prepare graduates for careers in the energy sector.

The OREC also provides information about geothermal energy to the public through its Geo-Heat Center. “Nationally, our Geo-Heat Center is the only place you can go to get the kind of information we have on our Web site,” Rogers says. “We’ve been giving out this kind of information since the 1970s; now, we get about 3,500 downloads every day from that portion of our Web site.”

OIT practices what it preaches in the field of geothermal energy—it’s the only university campus in the United States that is completely heated by geothermal energy.  Much of the surrounding area is heated by the same geothermal springs.

Through this third area of focus, Rogers and the OREC staff have worked on developing Zero Net Energy homes, most notably the Rose House in northwest Portland and a nationally renowned custom home in Cannon Beach, Ore.

The Rose House was built for just 15% over standard construction costs, but with its Zero Net Energy system, the home can recover the additional cost by functioning within its design.