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Using Ice Slush to Store Energy

Startup Applied Exergy is using an Oregon BEST Commercialization Grant to advance its grid-scale energy storage technology that uses ice and heat to store and release energy.

Large Wind Tunnel Helps Industry

Oregon BEST researcher Raúl Cal (left) and students set up the 17-ft. test section of a massive wind tunnel that fills the Wind Energy & Turbulence Research Lab at PSU.

The Impact of Green Roofs

An Oregon BEST Commercialization Grant is helping a Portland company develop a tool engineers and architects can use to incorporate green roofs for stormwater mitigation.

Innovating Better Windows

Tapping Oregon BEST expertise, equipment, and a Commercialization Grant, Portland startup Indow Windows has innovated a low-cost solution to window inserts.

Solar Energy Innovation

Solar energy companies are lining up at an Oregon BEST lab where a new tool developed by an Oregon company slashes solar cell test time from five minutes to a single second.

Solar Awnings, Green Walls, and Brighter Schools

Frank Vignola & Ihab Elzeyadi with Solar AwningOregon BEST researcher Ihab Elzeyadi has always been fascinated with light. “I love light, but when you grow up in Cairo, you appreciate the shade,” he says.

No wonder Elzeyadi, a professor of architecture at the University of Oregon, is thinking outside the box (literally) when it comes to light and shading, solar panels and green walls, and how to brighten school buildings to improve student health.

“The façade of a building should do much more than just separate you from the outside,” says Elzeyadi, who works with Frank Vignola, director of the UO's Solar Radiation Monitoring Lab.

Most solar PV panels are installed out of sight on building rooftops, where they provide only one function: converting sunlight into energy. But Elzeyadi has designed a unique solar awning that can be mounted on the facades of buildings and do much more. Full story...

Gov. John KitzhaberOregon Governor Talks "Economic Reinvention"

At Oregon BEST FEST '12, Gov. John Kitzhaber gave an inspiring speech about Oregon's "Economic Reinvention" and Oregon BEST's role in that. He said the conference theme "Rising to the Challenge" reminds us that "as a state and region, we have what it takes to see this reinvention through, starting with our work in the clean economy field, a growing sector that already employs more than 500,000 people along the West Coast and is predicted to triple in size to $147 billion by 2020." More.