Update on ɬ’s geothermal energy project
ɬ administrators tell the Daily Hampshire Gazette about the progress of the multiyear project to make the campus carbon neutral.
ɬ is finishing the second phase of its project to replace its century-old heating and cooling infrastructure, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reports in an article about the multiyear effort.
In the article, Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Carl M. Ries and Associate Vice President for Facilities Management Karla Youngblood FP’99 discuss ɬ’s switch to a geothermal heat exchange system and its goal to reach carbon neutrality by the College’s bicentennial.
As the project moves into its third phase, its scope has broadened to encompass wide-ranging campus renewal. The College now plans to add new windows to buildings for better insulation, install air conditioning and carry out interior renovations in residence halls.
“I think that we kind of went into [the project] thinking that we were going to put the geothermal system in, we’re going to flip the switch and we’re going to walk away,” Ries said in the Daily Hampshire Gazette article. “But the reality is that it actually kind of created this whole ecosystem of change that has to be looked at, and it has to be tackled really meaningfully. Otherwise, we’re going to get 10 years down the road, and we’re going to look back and it [will be as if] we didn’t do anything to the buildings.”
Youngblood told the newspaper that the inclusion of air conditioning, which originally was not part of the project, will improve students’ health and comfort. Air conditioning will be installed in just three residence halls — Rockefeller Hall North, Rockefeller Hall South and Mead Hall — but all buildings on campus will be connected to a new cooling infrastructure.
“What’s nice about adding air conditioning is we’re taking [the] waste heat we pull out of the buildings, and that’s what we’re putting in the ground to pull from later,” Youngblood said in the article. “And that’s why air conditioning makes the system more balanced.”
The geothermal project will not generate its own electricity, but the project will nevertheless be sustainable because the College will source energy from the South Hadley Electric Light Department. Ninety percent of the corporation’s portfolio consists of carbon-free energy sources, Youngblood has said.
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