When Ball State learned that it needed an expensive coal-fired boiler upgrade in order to meet its growing heating and cooling needs, the university decided to evaluate other options for campus-wide heating and cooling. Conditions in Ball State’s air operating permit restricted how much the plants could run, which prevented them from legally meeting higher capacity needs. As the boilers aged, they became less efficient and undersized for the growing student population and campus footprint. Visit the Department of Energy’s Energy Justice Dashboard to learn more.īall State University’s coal fired boilers, now offline, were installed in 19. This is often tied to the idea of a just transition, which emphasizes the need to incorporate equity and justice in the planning, implementation, and assessment of every socio-energy system change that shapes the energy transition. Additionally, as climate change continues to trigger hotter summers and intense heat waves, energy insecurity may continue to grow due to increased energy costs from air conditioning.Įnergy justice, a branch of the environmental justice movement, refers to the goal of achieving equity in both the social and economic participation in the energy system and remediating social, economic, and health burdens on marginalized communities. According to the US Energy Information Administration’s 2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, residents that identified as a minority racial group, Hispanic, or who were low-income experienced energy insecurity at higher levels than other demographics. The transition to renewable energy has the potential to exacerbate social inequalities due to industry job loss, rising energy prices, and unequal distributions of technological capacity. Learn about Ball State’s contracting phases from Contractor Magazine.The engineers connected building heating and cooling systems across campus to the geothermal system in phases.Installed infrastructure and monitored performance See the funding opportunities available on ERIT.The University secured funding primarily through state and federal resources.Secured partnerships, funding, and contracts Geothermal Heating and Cooling Technologies provides background information and resources to learn more about geothermal technology.The University analyzed three options for replacing boilers complete with cost-benefit analyses: circulating fluidized bed fossil fuel boiler, natural gas boiler, and a geothermal heat pump.How did they do it? ActionĬompleted feasibility and efficiency analyses to compare technologies Ball State University drills geothermal boreholes on the south side of campus. The University saves $2.2 - $2.5 million annually and, once the project is 100% complete, the campus will reduce its carbon emissions by more than 50%. Based on their research and analysis, the most cost-saving and energy-efficient solution was a campus-wide geothermal energy heating and cooling system. University staff needed to find a way to meet growing energy demands. As the coal fired boilers from the mid-20th century grew older and less efficient, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, grew larger.
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