The State College of New York at Albany is starting a $30 million decarbonization mission that may allow it to close down its gas-fired boilers in the course of the summer season months, it introduced earlier this month.
The mission will set up a high-efficiency electrical centrifugal chiller and a warmth restoration chiller, each related to a brand new geothermal nicely subject consisting of between 90 and 135 wells in a campus car parking zone. The chillers will change two gas-fired absorption chillers within the campus’ Sixties-era central energy plant, the college says. As well as, the mission will modify home sizzling water techniques in over 25 buildings and set up new low-temperature sizzling water piping within the campus athletic amenities.
The geothermal warmth restoration chiller will have the ability to meet the entire campus cooling, heating and home sizzling water masses in the course of the summer season months, the college says. The transfer is projected to scale back the college’s annual fossil gas consumption by 16%, in line with Indu, the power officer on the College at Albany.
The pipes all through the campus that ship sizzling water can create technical issues when transitioning to geothermal or different non-combustion heating applied sciences due to their small diameter, Indu mentioned.
With these pipes, “You can not make steam or high-temperature sizzling water with out burning some type of fossil gas,” Indu mentioned.
This limitation is why the college will solely have the ability to flip off its gas-fired boilers in the course of the summer season months. “Because the heating load begins to extend, our pipe sizes are too small to warmth the campus with simply 180-degree [Fahrenheit] water,” she mentioned.
Subsequent steps
To beat the restrictions of current pipes, the college is evaluating the development of a satellite tv for pc power hub: a completely electrified geothermal warmth restoration plant on the opposite aspect of campus, nearer to the place main masses like residential buildings and the College at Albany’s proposed $250 million well being innovation & expertise constructing will likely be positioned, in line with Indu.
The satellite tv for pc power hub and related geothermal wells would assist warmth and funky 700,000 sq. toes of adjoining buildings along with the well being tech constructing, the college says. Then, the college will construct new pipe networks and electrify the prevailing plant utilizing the prevailing piping infrastructure to “feed as a lot of the campus as we are able to whereas that different plant begins to choose up some slack from buildings on the opposite finish,” Indu mentioned.
“Finally, these two networks will join and supply redundancy for one another. However that [plan] will assist us transfer to that with out spending an unlimited amount of cash on pipes,” Indu mentioned. The brand new plant and geothermal wells are anticipated to scale back the campus’ fossil gas consumption by an extra 16%, in line with the college’s launch.
The present mission and anticipated subsequent steps are a part of the SUNY system’s push to decarbonize throughout the state as New York works to realize an 85% discount in greenhouse gasoline emissions by 2050, the college mentioned.
Seeing the entire image
Life cycle planning and grasp planning are important to implementing power effectivity tasks and stopping hiccups within the course of, in line with Indu.
“Campuses, particularly … are advanced techniques,” Indu mentioned. “You’ll be able to’t simply take a look at one part and see what’s one of the best for this constructing or this particular system. You need to take a look at campus as an entire. If I make this transformation right here, how does this influence different issues on campus?”
To that finish, UAlbany has developed a Clear Power Grasp Plan to decarbonize its downtown campus, which it’s at the moment looking for state funding to help.
“Capital price is normally the factor that stops individuals from implementing these tasks. As a result of changing chillers [like for like] might be going to be manner cheaper [up front], virtually half the price of doing this warmth restoration channel, the nicely fields and all of that,” Indu mentioned.
Nonetheless, whereas a nicely subject is dear, it has a life cycle of fifty to 60 years, in contrast with a cooling tower which will solely have a lifetime of 20 to 25 years, Indu mentioned. “You’ll be able to simply use your annual financial savings. You need to take a look at the life cycle price of the system and examine it, after which take a look at the web current worth over the lifetime of the system,” she mentioned.