Oberlin College Announces Plans for New 2.3 MW Solar Array
Construction of a 2.27-megawatt solar array consisting of 7,722 polycrystalline photovoltaic panels will begin soon and start producing energy in September. The array will also provide research opportunities for students and faculty in multiple disciplines. The college has entered into an agreement with Spear Point Energy to purchase the electricity that is produced.
Santa Clara U Athletics Center Introduces User-Powered Treadmills
The university has added two new treadmills that are "powered by sweat" for a total of 33 fitness machines that are self-generating and require no electricity. In total, the university reports that the 33 machines save enough electricity to power a personal computer for 10 years.
U Chicago Works to 'Green' Campus Fitness Center
In addition to user-powered fitness bikes and reuse/swap/donation options for its older fitness machines and athletic uniforms, the university's Ratner Athletics Center is working with Facilities Services to implement energy conservation lighting and recalibrate and balance its ventilation system.
EPA Announces Green Power Challenge Winners
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized a Champion Green Power Conference as well as the largest single green power users in its sixth College and University Green Power Challenge for 2011-2012. At more than 228 million kilowatt-hours, the Pac-12 conference topped the list with the largest total purchase among all conferences.
Gustavus Adolphus College Installs Solar Panels
Purchased through an anonymous donation, the college has installed solar panels on four buildings to heat the water system in various parts of campus. In addition to conserving energy on campus, the panels will help provide research opportunities for students. Student researchers can receive access to a power grid to observe installations or get virtual access for projects in the teaching lab.
Medical U South Carolina Reports Significant Energy Savings
Through an Energy Savings Performance Contract with Ameresco, the university has announced savings of almost $2.5 million in annual energy costs. Energy-efficient retrofits completed under the contract include lighting system upgrades and the installation of more efficient water fixtures, fume hoods and mechanical upgrades and controls.
U Buffalo Debuts 750 kW 'Solar Strand'
The university's 3,200-panel solar photovoltaic array is expected to meet the electricity needs of hundreds of student apartments and reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions by 400 tons per year.
American U Cairo Reduces Energy Use by 20%
(Egypt): With its Energy and Resource Conservation and Efficiency Project, American University in Cairo has used 20.4 percent less energy in kilowatt hours campus-wide in the past six months compared to the same six-month period a year earlier. With the goal of reducing overall campus energy use by one third in three years, the initiative includes retro-commissioning all major building systems on campus; ending the use of cooling and heating after hours and on weekends, breaks and holidays; and eventually consolidating classroom operations during winter and summer sessions to stop heating and cooling empty classrooms.
Harvard U Law School Weatherizes Dorm Windows
(U.S.): After dorm residents in Harvard Law School's North Hall noticed cold spots near their windows on cold days, the university weatherproofed all 117 windows. Calculated using the Harvard Green Building Resource Life Cycle Costing Tool, an open resource that helps project managers analyze life cycle costs for energy conservation measures, the law school expects to save $1,006 annually.
IIT Bombay Implements Energy Conservation Measures
(India): As part of its Green Campus Initiative, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay has installed occupancy sensors in bathrooms and toilet blocks in its 14 hostels and academic departments, a measure that is expected to reduce energy consumption by 70 percent per day. The institute has also installed six solar water heaters and is planning to make use of heat generated from air-conditioning systems for cooking and heating water.
U Mass Med School New Air Systems Save Water and Energy
(U.S.): In an effort to reduce energy and water consumption, the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s facilities team has completed the replacement of two medical vacuum systems and one medical compressed air system. The new systems are expected to save 483,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and four million gallons of water per year.
U Worcester Completes Solar Array Installation
(U.K.): Students and faculty will have the opportunity to monitor the amount of energy produced from the 50-kilowatt solar photovoltaic array and, by contributing power to the electrical grid, the university will benefit from the feed-in tariff payments.
Genesee CC Debuts Solar Powered Weather Station
The wireless weather monitoring station is powered through solar energy stored in rechargeable batteries. Current temperature and weather conditions are available via the college's Facebook page. The station was funded through the college’s Foundation President’s Innovation Award Program.
Luther College Completes Community Wind Power Project
A 1.6-megawatt wind turbine owned and operated by Luther College Wind Energy Project is providing the college and community with wind-generated electrical power. The power generated by the turbine is being sold to Alliant Energy under a long-term power purchase agreement and the project's Renewable Energy Certificates are being sold to the college.
U Vermont to Install Solar Panels at Equine Farm
With $55,740 from its Clean Energy Fund, the university has announced a solar panel installation at its Miller Equine Farm. Students will have the opportunity to work with Vermont Solar & Wind Partnership Program and the Clean Energy Fund during the installation in May. The power generated will feed directly into the electrical grid.
Carnegie Mellon U Purchases Wind Power
The university has partnered with Renewable Choice Energy to offset 100 percent of its 2012 electricity consumption. The university purchased 116,000-megawatt hours of certified renewable energy credits sourced from wind farms located in the Midwest.
Champlain College 'Kill-A-Watt' Winner Reduces Energy by 36%
The top energy savers of Sustain Champlain's annual energy reduction challenge among residence halls achieved a 36 percent savings in electricity use. The winner, Rowell Hall, was determined through a point system split between actual electricity reduction and spreading awareness through programming.
Western Washington U Installs Solar Panels
The energy produced by 24 solar panels on the roof of the Environmental Studies building will feed directly into the university’s electrical grid. A Student Green Energy Fee funded the $167,500 array, which is expected to be operational this month.
Ball State U Completes First Phase of Campus Geothermal System
The university has completed the first phase of what the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is calling the "nation's largest geothermal heating and cooling system." The $80 million project is expected to save the university $2 million in annual operating costs and cut its carbon footprint by nearly 50 percent. The system should be complete by next year, "at which time we will decommission the remaining two coal-fired boilers and be a completely geothermal district heating and cooling campus," the university's Center for Energy Research/Education/Service Director Robert J. Koester tells the AASHE Bulletin.
Kirkwood CC Installs Wind Turbine as Teaching Tool
Students in the community college's energy production and distribution technologies program will use the turbine as a learning laboratory and power from the turbine will be sold to an area utilities company, generating about $300,000 a year for the college.
Lanier Technical College Installs Solar Arrays
With a $503,000 grant from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, the college has installed a total of 407 square feet of solar photovoltaic and thermal panels on two campuses. Students have the opportunity to manage the energy produced.
U Kansas Reduces Energy Consumption with 'Lights Out!' Campaign
After a month of competition to save energy, three campus buildings have reduced their overall energy consumption by 10 percent compared to February 2011 by ensuring that unnecessary lighting, office equipment and electronics are powered down when not in use.
U Tennessee Knoxville Meets Challenge to Reduce Electricity Use
Since the university's chancellor issued a challenge to reduce energy consumption in February 2011, the university has reduced electricity use by one kilowatt-hour per square foot and saved $900,000 in utility costs. The university is also halfway to meeting the first interim goal of its Climate Action Plan to reduce campus operations emissions to 20 percent below the 2008 level by 2021.
Columbia U Receives $1 M for 'Green' Power Plant
(U.S.): The new plant, funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, will combine natural gas boilers, "greener" refrigeration machines, variable-speed motors and a cutting-edge industrial grade control system to reduce overall plant energy costs and energy consumption.
SmartPower Names 'America's Next Eco-Star'
(U.S.): Recent Middlebury College (Vermont) graduate Katelyn Romanov has won the title of "America’s Next Eco-Star." She was selected by more than 10,000 voters and a panel of experts during the SmartPower and U.S. Department of Energy nationwide competition. Romanov was recognized for her clean energy and environmental activism as a founding member of student group Sprout (dedicated to promoting environmental education in local schools) and the U.S. Green Building Council’s Middlebury student chapter.
U South Pacific Unveils Solar Energy System
(Fiji Islands): The 45-kilowatt grid connected system is expected to provide approximately 10 percent of energy needs for the campus. Funding for the system was part of a contribution by the Korean government’s East Asia Climate Partnership initiative.
U Vermont Launches Campus Renewable Energy Feasibility Study
(U.S.): Initiated by the university's Clean Energy Fund, the study will reveal which locations on campus can improve their energy technologies with a focus on the possibility of campus-based renewable energy and its role in achieving carbon neutrality. The project is expected to be completed by September.
Washington U St. Louis to Expand Green Labs Program
(U.S.): The university's Office of Sustainability and Sustainability Action Team at the School of Medicine are working to expand the pilot Danforth Campus Green Labs Initiative after seeing significant savings in carbon emissions and money since its September 2011 launch. Based on initial results, the initiative is projected to save 80,000 pounds of carbon emissions and $2,000 in energy bills per year.
Brandeis U Tackles Deferred Maintenance with $5 Mil Plan
Brandeis University's (Massachusetts) Board of Trustees has committed $5 million to a Sustainable Energy Program aimed at reducing energy costs and addressing deferred maintenance issues on campus. Projects including lighting retrofits, the replacement of aging heating and cooling systems and increasing efficiency in all energy-related systems are projected to reduce utility costs about $540,000 in the first year. The program's launch coincides with student-initiated Energize Brandeis Month.
Harvard U Hosts Green Lab Competition
Harvard University's (Massachusetts) Faculty of Arts & Sciences department is teaming up with the Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology department to hold its first floor by floor lab competition for most efficient recycling efforts and energy use.
U Minnesota Twin Cities Names 'Conservation Madness' Champion
Territorial Hall has been named the winner of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities' second annual residence hall sustainability competition for reducing its energy use during the month-long competition by 4.4 percent. If all residence halls conserved resources over the course of an entire year at the same rate as the top ranking residence halls during the competition, the university reports that it would save more than $120,000 annually.
U Missouri Brings 'Solar Dok' to Campus
The University of Missouri's new Solar Dok, a table equipped with solar panels for charging electronic devices, was funded by student fees. The table features a battery bank that stores energy for use when the sun’s rays are not as strong and a charge controller that displays the amount of solar energy being produced.
Winners of UC Berkeley Student Competition Reduce Energy by 40%
Organized by student organizations Greening the Greeks and Green Campus, the Green Cup at the University of California, Berkeley challenged 18 Greek chapters to reduce their per capita electricity and natural gas consumption in October and November 2011 through educational presentations, basic retrofits, motivation from chapter leaders and a $2,000 prize incentive for the winning chapter. Phi Gamma Delta fraternity was announced the winner after reducing its per capita electricity consumption by 40 percent and natural gas consumption by 24 percent. In total, participating chapters avoided 11 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions and $5,600 in utility bills.
Auburn U Parking Deck Receives New Solar Panels
Auburn University (AL) has installed 24 solar panels on the upper level of a parking garage. The energy generated by the panels will be used to offset the electricity consumed by the 12 electric vehicle-charging stations located on the parking deck.
Chippewa Valley Technical College Installs Solar Tree
Chippewa Valley Technical College (WI) has installed a metal tree composed of solar panels to provide energy for the campus greenhouse. The solar tree’s main function is to provide a learning experience for the students involved in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning program. The $10,000 cost was funded by a grant and donations.
National U Completes 2 New Solar Power Systems
National University (CA) has announced the completion of rooftop and carport solar power systems. With over 3,000 panels, the two systems are expected to produce enough energy to power 85 percent of the electricity at the Technology and Health Sciences Center and 35 percent at the Spectrum Business Park Campus. The university expects to save more than $1.6 million over the next 20 years.
Stanford U Saves $266K with 'Turn Off for Break' Campaign
With 168 buildings participating in the recent winter break energy curtailment effort, Stanford University (CA) has reported a savings of $266,000 in operating costs. This is a 32 percent increase from 2010. Since 2001, the winter curtailment program has saved about $2.5 million.
Wake Forest U Debuts Campus Building Dashboard
Wake Forest University (NC) has implemented a new building dashboard to monitor energy use and energy reduction efforts in 39 buildings across campus. The Lucid Design Group dashboard monitors water and kilowatt usage, carbon dioxide emissions and energy costs.
Pittsburg State U Expands Energy Conservation with Submeters
Building upon $4.7 million in energy efficiency improvements last year including a new geothermal heating and cooling system, Pittsburg State University (KS) is installing 147 submeters to record and transmit real-time electric, gas, steam and water use data to an on-campus server. That information will be used to monitor, track and analyze campus utility use, evaluate energy conservation efforts and identify additional conservation opportunities. The university will also install at least one kiosk that will allow students, faculty and staff interactive access to all of the real-time data, information and results for each building. The $750,000 project is being funded by an American Reinvestment and Recovery Act grant.
U Southern Maine Upgrades with Energy-Efficient Lighting
The University of Southern Maine has embarked on an energy-efficient lighting upgrade for all campus parking lots and roadway fixtures. A $135,000 competitive grant from Efficiency Maine will help fund the LED lighting retrofit.
U Texas Austin Installs Photovoltaic Inverters
The University of Texas at Austin has installed seven 30-kilowatt photovoltaic inverters operating at their new 200-kilowatt solar system. The inverter enables a 90 percent weight reduction and more than 90 percent reduction in magnetic components, significantly reducing installation and shipping costs.
Dickinson College Gears Up for Campus Energy Challenge
Students will spar dorm against dorm in Dickinson College's (PA) March Energy Challenge. The winning residence hall will capture the Dickinson Green Cup, and receive $500 toward "greening" their building's lounge. Faculty and staff will also work to reduce campus electricity consumption for an overall campus goal of 10 percent compared with March 2011 rates. If the college reaches its goal, a portion of the funds saved will be reinvested in an on-campus solar project.
