Armed with a budget of $5 million for energy efficiency this fiscal year, Facilities Management this summer began implementing initiatives suggested by the Energy and Environmental Advisory Committee.
Those recommendations, made last spring in a report to the University, included replacing the Central Heat Plant's fuel oil with natural gas and purchasing carbon offsets in a socially responsible way.
"Since the students left, we've made a lot of progress in getting things started," said Energy Manager Chris Powell. "We are definitely getting to the point where some of these big projects are moving forward."
Before receiving the $5 million for the efficiency projects, Facilities Management had only $2 million earmarked for lighting investment and "incidental funds," Powell wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
One of the most significant projects undertaken so far was switching from fuel oil to the less carbon-intensive natural gas in the Central Heat Plant, which is located on Lloyd Avenue near the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center, Powell said.
While not a full changeover - the plant will continue to use fuel oil during the coldest parts of the winter - the switch will significantly increase energy efficiency at the Central Heat Plant.
Another initiative includes replacing steam traps - which keep steam inside radiators until it condenses and can no longer be used for heating until reheated at the plant - to increase energy efficiency. If traps aren't working properly, steam and energy are wasted.
Before the traps can actually be updated, however, "every single steam trap in every building" must be inventoried, Powell said. The preliminary work that started on this initiative over the summer should be done in another week.
"It's a big undertaking - it's a big campus," Powell said.
The building retro-commissioning process, which upgrades outdated insulation and other elements of older buildings, began this summer as well.
"We've hired consultants to go in, document each building and come back with recommendations that can be implemented immediately," Powell said. "At the same time, they're looking at operational changes," like new technologies and new systems that may increase the building's efficiency in the long-run.
"This is where a significant amount of our energy savings are, and where the focus of EEAC recommendations were - getting our buildings more efficient," Powell said. "We'll be putting a lot of funds into that."
Facilities Management has continued its improvement of Brown's outdated high-temperature water loop on campus by replacing more piping this summer, Powell said. Higher insulation levels should prevent leakage, saving energy and money.
Kurt Teichert, lecturer in environmental studies and environmental stewardship initiatives manager, said those improvements are "a good example of the type of things that every campus, every household, needs to do to reduce energy."
"They're not as flashy as putting some solar panels on a roof, but it really addresses fundamental uses of energy," he added.
Teichert said it is critical for Brown to deal with reducing energy demand, which can be done both by educating the community about what it can do and by setting a good example through addressing fundamental problems, like poorly insulated windows.
New efforts will build on past ones - over the past five to 10 years, Brown has implemented conservation measures that, on a cumulative basis, have saved 90 million kilowatts, Powell said, adding that "at today's electricity costs of 12 cents per kilowatt-hour, that means we avoided spending an additional $10.8 million from the installation of the energy efficiency measures."
Nathan Wyeth '08, organizer of the student-run climate-neutrality group emPOWER, said more must be done to conserve energy on campus for environmental reasons.
"I think that, from our perspective, it's great that they've gone ahead with these projects, but what's most important is the goal that they set and the commitment they make in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and in terms of making Brown climate neutral," he said.
Wyeth stressed the need for Brown to achieve more than increased energy efficiency - for example, to commit to becoming climate neutral.
"We just hope that the University doesn't see this as a replacement for a University-wide goal," Wyeth said. "This is one of the pieces used to get there."
The Internationalization Committee, he said, set global environmental change as an issue for the University to focus on in its report released Monday, including expanding research opportunities and course offerings in the area.
"We think that implementing things like that, to create a greener school, will make Brown a leader in this field," Wyeth said. "We want them to set an example to the community, to the city and to our peer institutions that we're going to set this goal and we're going to figure out how to achieve that."
There are still more projects to come, Powell said.
"The big significant investment we're hoping to create is a co-generation plant that operates year-round," he said.
Co-generation plants, unlike traditional plants, are able to make two products at once. They can, for example, produce electricity while providing heat, steam or air conditioning to campus when needed, Powell said. Traditional plants are inefficient because they waste their heat byproducts, he said.
The co-generation plant would also be powered by natural gas, which is much cleaner and less carbon-intensive than typical fuels, said Powell.
"There are things that can still be done around lighting and lighting controls," Teichert said. He echoed Powell's comment on addressing the idea of a campus co-generation plant as a next potentially large step.
"The fact of the matter is ... having an administration that is fully supporting us and helping us move their projects forward is terrific," Powell said. "From my perspective, we're in great shape."
