| SunPower Powers
Dartmouth College's 'Big Green Bus'
A group of 12 Dartmouth College students committed to promoting the use
of alternative energy has embarked on a 10-week cross-country journey in
"The Big Green Bus," a vehicle powered by vegetable oil and a 215-watt
silicon solar panel donated by SunPower Corp., a subsidiary of Cypress
Semiconductor Corp. The bus is traveling more than 10,000 miles roundtrip between the Dartmouth campus at Hanover, N.H.,and California, running on waste vegetable oil (WVO) the team picks up from restaurants along the way. Originally operating on diesel fuel, the vehicle was modified with a second fuel tank and filter by a group of Dartmouth engineering students. The SunPower SPR-215 solar panel, mounted on the roof of the bus, is helping to power a fuel warming system, required to keep the oil from thickening in the fuel lines. The solar electricity is also charging the team's laptop computers and digital cameras. "The Big Green Bus is increasing awareness about fossil fuel alternatives at a time when concerns about the pricing and supply of fossil fuels continues to rise," said Cypress founder, president and CEO, T.J. Rodgers, a Dartmouth alumnus and member of the college's Board of Trustees. "The bus project is an example of what a small group of committed individuals can do when they pool their time and expertise to solve a real-world problem." "Our initiative combines the energy and enthusiasm of a motivated, grassroots campaign with the resources of corporations that are willing to get involved," said sophomore English major Andrew Zabel, a member of The Big Green Bus team. "A simple and plentiful resource--waste vegetable oil--fuels the bus. We reuse this waste, shaping it into social energy."
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