What costs N.C. State $22 million every year and emits greenhouse gases that degrade the environment? The answer is N.C. State’s annual usage of energy.
However, according to David Dean, the outreach coordinator of N.C. State’s Office of Sustainability, the University is always working to minimize our energy usage and make things more efficient.
“We have a mandate saying we have to achieve a certain reduction by 2015, we have a mandate from the vice chancellor of finance and business as well as the provost; [they] all say that we have to address energy,” Dean said. “When we’re spending $22 million on it, it’s something to be concerned about.”
By this August, the University will be able to have greater control over this issue as construction of new heat recovery steam generators will be complete. The new power generators will be the University’s first venture into the production of large amounts of energy and will service 8 million gross square feet—more than half of NCSU square footage.
“We’ve been buying energy from Progress Energy,” Dean said. “We’ve got some smaller scale things such as solar panels here and there but nothing like the 11 megawatts [the new turbines will be able to produce].”
However, as the name implies, the heat recovery steam generators do more than just produce 11 megawatts of energy. According to Dean, these units represent a step towards much greater efficiency and a substantial reduction of green house gases that the University would have produced. In fact, with these new units in place, University facilities will be reducing energy consumption by 30 percent and reducing green house gas production by 8 percent, which would is 2,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide that will not be produced.
The reason why combined heat and power is so efficient is because it generates the power with turbine output, using fossil fuels to turn the turbine. Excess heat, in essence energy, would otherwise go to waste. This heat is captured by the heat recovery steam generator, which captures heat energy produced as a byproduct and uses it to vaporize water. This steam goes out to the rest of campus to heat facilities, according to Dean.
“So it’s a closed loop system,” Dean said. “In the past, we were buying all of our power from Progress Energy and we were making steam to heat over in Yarbrough but we were using 60-year-old units.”
This project is a revamp of the entire University system. But the changes don’t come cheap. The entire construction will cost N.C. State 61 million dollars. However, this money will come from the money that the University is saving on making the switch. Buying energy, instead of producing it, would cost more. The liability falls on Ameresco Inc., the company that will handle the project, in accordance to a performance contract the University has with Aeresco Inc.
“Just in the first year, N.C. State will save 4.3 million of savings…the 61 million will get paid through the savings realized,” Dean said. “The reason we are using this type of funding mechanism is because it is lean financial and budget times we have upwards of 500 million in backlog of repair and renovations … and the state doesn’t have that the University doesn’t have that and we don’t have that many donors jumping up.”
According to Dean, the performance contract ensures that the project will pay for itself over the course of 17 years with no risk of loss to the University.
“[Ameresco] does the work and they guarantee us a certain return on that, they guarantee that we will have a certain amount of energy savings,” Dean said. “If those savings aren’t realized, and these are verified by a third party, they have to make up the difference. The University is not on the hook, which saves the taxpayers and the students.”
Still, some students have other concerns beyond money. Tara Beck, a senior in international studies, is not too happy with the potential of encouraging fracking.
“My fear is that we’re going to be causing damage…[in the form of] fracking which, according to everyone I’ve known who has experienced fracking, is really bad for people,” Beck said.
However, according to Dean, natural gas is the cleanest fuel NCSU can use to power the system.
Casey Halejak, a senior in meteorology, sees this a good step and a good example for the community.
“From N.C. State university’s perspective, as a public university, it has to set a good example…and this is a good idea,” Halejak said. “I am concerned about the costs in keeping up with the system up to date [in the future].”
Cogeneration, however, is only a small part of what the Office of Sustainability is concerned with.
“The cogeneration system is just one tool being implemented to address our carbon footprint,” Dean said. “The Climate Action Plan, endorsed by the Chancellor last year, states that N.C. State will work towards climate neutrality by 2050. The Combined Heat and Power system is a step we can take now.”
Cogeneration may be impressive in that it is large and much of the campus benefits from it but according to Dean, in the big picture, this is still a very small part of N.C. State’s investment in sustainability and according to Dean, sustainability is key in getting through these hard financial times.
“We can’t upgrade all the buildings if people are just going to leave all the lights on and open all the windows,” Dean said. “When we don’t have to spend money on utilities, we’re able to spend it elsewhere and that’s the key, we’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do, we’re doing it because we need to update our buildings, but we’re also doing this because it’s lean budgetary time and we need all the help we can get we should really start by helping ourselves and start by helping the environment at the same time.”
The Office of Sustainability will soon be running other campaigns such as Shut the Sash and Hit the Switch. With big plans for Earth Day and an electric vehicle show planned in the Brickyard, cogeneration indeed, may seem small among other plans but they may also exist as more than just a utility.
“The turbines sit side by side and the heat recovery steam generators are painted N.C. State red. In the final, there will be a big Tuffy wolf on it,” Dean said.
