Going green and saving greenbacks
When President R. Barbara Gitenstein signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, it was the latest step in an ongoing effort by TCNJ to be environmentally friendly. Not only are these efforts paying dividends for the environment: they are also saving the College millions of dollars.
Two years ago, in response to skyrocketing energy costs, the College implemented an energy-conservation initiative on campus. Dubbed “Knowledge is Power” (KIP), the initiative’s goal was to educate students, faculty, and staff on how they could reduce their individual energy usage to help the environment and lower the College’s energy costs. It also set indoor temperature limits for both summertime and wintertime to reduce electricity and steam costs.
KIP has been a major success. During the last half of fiscal year 2006, the College saved over $400,000 in energy cost. During fiscal year 2007, the College saved over $1 million because of KIP.
A Web site was set up to spread the word about the initiative. The site contains tips on reducing energy consumption: for example, people were asked to use natural light instead of overhead lights whenever possible; keep doors closed in air-conditioned or heated areas; stop the use of space heaters; and turn off the lights when leaving an area for more than 10 minutes. There is an online energy self audit that users can perform to help them in their conservation efforts. There is also a feedback mechanism so that people can suggest other energy-conservation ideas.
KIP has been a major success. During the last half of fiscal year 2006, when the program was initially implemented, the College saved over $400,000 in energy costs, said Lori Winyard, director of energy and central utilities. During fiscal year 2007 (July 1, 2006, to June 30, 2007), the first full year of the program, the College saved over $1 million because of KIP.
Besides the financial savings, Winyard explained, “TCNJ also saved kilowatt hours. Those kilowatts would have been produced at a power plant,” and it is likely that in the process of producing those kilowatts, the plant also would have created greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions. “Therefore, by saving energy, the College also saved money and reduced its carbon footprint,” Winyard said.
TCNJ’s commitment to energy efficiency (and to keeping energy-related expenses as low as possible) is also evidenced by the energy-producing technologies that are in place on campus. Campus buildings need both electricity and steam to properly function. To meet much of the power demands, the College owns and operates its own cogeneration plant, which is both environmentally friendly and cost efficient, Winyard said. The cogeneration plant’s turbine, which looks a bit like a jet engine, produces 85 percent of the electricity that is used on campus.
While the turbine is producing that electricity, it also exhausts heat, which is captured in a heat-recovery boiler. That heat provides enough steam to meet about one third of the College’s steam needs, Winyard explained.
"By saving energy, the College also is saving money and reducing its carbon footprint,” said Lori Winyard, director of energy and central utilities at TCNJ.
“Without a cogeneration plant, TCNJ would buy all of its electricity from the Utility grid,” Winyard said. That purchased energy would be more emissions heavy, since a portion of it would come from older, coal-burning plants that release more GHGs into the atmosphere. Also, by using the captured heat from the cogeneration plant to provide steam to one third of campus, the College needs to run fewer steam boilers—boilers that would run on gas or oil and release more emissions, Winyard explained.
The cogeneration plant is just one of the solutions in place to efficiently power campus, Winyard said. There is a photovoltaic system on the roof of the facilities maintenance building that provides electricity for the building’s lights. There are geothermal heat pumps on campus, which use the heat in the earth to heat Paul Loser Hall and the Townhouses. There are variable frequency drives for the AC system, which help regulate the temperature and at the same time save energy. Steam-driven turbines in the power plant run on waste steam from the cogeneration plant, further reducing the need to run additional boilers. Once the student apartments are up and running, they will be powered by three fuel cells, which Winyard said are “cutting-edge technology.”
All of these technologies are helping to keep TCNJ at the forefront in new energy-conservation technologies, and at the same time reducing energy-related costs.
Tony Marchetti '96, '02
