Student alternative energy
project awarded grant

“Finally, something worth celebrating!” said Jen

McDougle, former Boise State University student of the BSU

engineering students’ senior project to design a lighting

system that uses alternative energy sources for the Bogus Basin

Nordic Center. The Edwards Mother Earth Foundation (EMEF) recently

awarded $37,000 to Bogus Basin’s Lifetime Sports Education

Foundation (BBLSEF) for the first phase of the project, which

involves constructing a new, 1.2-kilometer trail section to

complete the loop trail as well as design the lighting system.

If the project proceeds as currently planned, the lighted trail

will be operational starting winter 2005-06, giving Nordic skiers

and snowshoe adventurers a venue for evening workouts at Bogus

Basin. Additional support is being sought from community groups,

corporations and individuals to help complete the project.

“We are very excited about this lighting project and its

potential to expand Nordic skiing opportunities,” said John

Studebaker, president of BBLSEF’s Nordic Group, which

procured the renewable EMEF grant and is overseeing the project.

“There has been growing interest in night skiing at the Bogus

Basin Nordic Center. By using an alternative energy source to power

the lights, we will also serve as a demonstration project that we

hope will help raise awareness about the environmental benefits of

renewable energy systems,” Studebaker said.

Construction will begin this summer on the additional

1.2-kilometer section of trail that will extend Red Tail Trail to

connect with Sapper’s Return Trail, according to Bogus Basin

Nordic Center Director Travis Jones. The 5 kilometer lighted trail

will follow Red Tail from the Bogus Basin Nordic Center and return

on Sapper’s, and will cover a variety of terrain.

A key component of this project is educational. Displays

explaining the project and its use of alternative energy are

planned at the Frontier Point Lodge at Bogus Basin. Outreach

efforts to community groups, schools and civic organizations

— including field trips and other presentations — are

also included in the project proposal. Boise State

University’s College of Engineering is a partner in the

project.

Two Boise State engineering students are currently researching

alternative energy options, including solar, wind, and fuel cell

technologies, and will design the lighting system as their senior

project. Other organizations, such as the Boise-based mapping

company Spatial Dynamics, as well as Bogus Basin Mountain Resort,

are providing additional support to the project.

Boise State engineering students Jeremy Taylor and Nic McGhie,

both seniors, will spend this semester researching and designing

the lighting system under the supervision of Carl Hoerger, a Nordic

Group board member and former university engineering professor, now

a project manager at Hewlett Packard. The students will evaluate

renewable energy options, including using a centralized bank of

solar collectors on a wired system to connect the lights,

installing solar panels on each lighting pole, or employing wind or

fuel cell technologies, Hoerger said.

Taylor, who is interested in pursuing a career designing

alternative energy or energy management systems, said the Bogus

project should provide him with some valuable hands-on experience.

“I am looking forward to building the prototype to see if the

ideas Nic and I have thought of will actually work,” he

said.

For her part, McDougle feels as many BSU students do, and added,

“This project will put the face of education back on the

institution. It will demonstrate that BSU can offer more to the

community than just football and a parking lot for tailgate

parties. I hope the local papers and television news agencies give

this project the same amount of attention as they do the football

team.”

Brandon Follett
News Reporter

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