POTSDAM -- Clarkson University has received $40,000 from the Dominion Foundation to support the University's Local Energy Efficient Food Facility (LEEFF).

The program aims to provide Clarkson students with opportunities to apply their engineering, science, and business skills to a project that addresses a real-world problem.

The grant will be used to integrate a pilot greenhouse, using the technology of aeroponics to grow plants year round utilizing a biomass-solar thermal heating system, and an anaerobic digester into a "living laboratory" facility, LEEFF.

The living laboratory has the capacity to capture real-time data for analysis and system monitoring. An environmental engineering graduate student will take the lead in facilitating and designing the monitoring systems needed to successfully complete this integration process. Once completed, the data generated by LEEFF will be used in classrooms across campus.

The project will be overseen by the Institute for a Sustainable Environment and coordinated by Associate Director for Sustainability Susan E. Powers, the Spence Professor in Sustainable Environmental Systems.

Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 28,200 megawatts of generation, 11,000 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline and 6,300 miles of electric transmission lines. It practices environmental stewardship and contributes more than $20 million annually to the environment, education, arts and culture, and health and human services.