With funding opportunities nearly exhausted, Ball State will soon be at a slight standstill with its landmark geothermal project.
The heating and cooling system, which uses underground piping to regulate the temperature in buildings on campus, is slowing down its operations as university officials seek alternative funding to complete the project.
Jim Lowe, director of Engineering, Construction and Operations, said the project will cost around $73 million. In February 2009, when the Board of Trustees first approved the geothermal project, it was estimated at $66 million, according to an earlier Daily News report.
"Even though we knew at that time that funding was not totally in place, we knew we could complete at least half the project, allowing us to shut down two coal boilers, and we're reaching that," Lowe said. "We're there."
With 10 miles worth of geothermal piping laid last summer as part of Phase 1, sections of Riverside and McKinley avenues resembled a disaster area. The latest area under construction is the field across from Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital, which is the future site of 1,800 boreholes where piping will be placed. Lowe said the university plans on drilling 780 boreholes before funding is depleted.
THE SEARCH FOR FUNDING
With funding running out, and Phase 2 still on target but lacking enough money for completion, it is easy to wonder why the university would choose to execute a project without enough funding to complete it.
"We had to do something," Lowe said. "There was not an option of doing nothing."
The university is investigating three likely sources of funding, said Executive Director of Public Relations Joan Todd. These options include philanthropic organizations, as well as state and federal funding.
"Essentially, we are leaving no stone unturned," Todd said. "If those don't pan out in our time frame, we will incrementally add on to the geothermal system. We're going to have heat and cooling, no matter what."
This incremental funding and development can be achieved through university finances as they become available.
Todd said the university has received positive feedback on the project so far.
"With the first phase being fully operational, the advantage we have is that we've proven that it works, and we think that will help us get financing," Todd said.
When the university set out to update energy efficiency on campus, the plan didn't include such an expensive project.
In early 2000, the first option it considered going with was a Circulating Fluidized Bed Boiler system that would have cost an estimated $65-70 million to complete. Once the university discovered the geothermal option, it realized the $8 million difference between the systems was well worth the price considering the geothermal conversion would save the university an estimated $2 million annually.
At first, the university had simply wanted to replace the set of four coal boilers that were outdated, two of which were installed at the university in the 1940s.
Lowe said the project is on budget and should be completed by 2014. At this time, the university will completely shut down its coal-burning operations, but it will keep the gas burners as a backup heating and cooling system for use in emergencies.
"Our campus is dependent upon this, so if it were for some reason to fail, if the units didn't operate, we can go back to making steam," Lowe said.
Planning for energy efficiency started with the Ball brothers in the early 20th century. Lowe said the family purchased the land that is now Ball State University in part because of the amount of natural gas located in the area and the opportunities it could provide for their jar-making business.
The ironic part, Lowe said, is that nearly 100 years later we're reaching back into the ground, not for natural gas, but for the ground's ability to either take or reject heat.
The university's geothermal conversion project is the largest system of its kind in the country and has put Ball State on the map for its efforts in improving the environment.
THE DEDICATION
Phase 1 of the massive energy-saving and cost-efficient geothermal project will be dedicated this afternoon at 2 p.m. beginning in Sursa Performance Hall. University President Jo Ann Gora and Hollis Hughes Jr., president of the Board of Trustees, will both kick off the dedication.
Amory Lovins, chairman and chief scientist for the Rocky Mountain Institute, will be the keynote speaker. Lovins is an expert on advanced energy and resource efficiency.
Although Phase 1 has technically been running since Nov. 28, Lowe said the dedication is being held in March for a number of reasons.
The ceremony coincides with the annual Greening of the Campus Conference, which is being held at L.A. Pittenger Student Center this week. Lowe said he's glad the event is taking place on campus so he can present the geothermal project to representatives from other universities who will be at the conference.
"It was great timing ... and it exposes more folks who might be around for that," Lowe said.
BECOMING MORE EFFICIENT
Before installing the geothermal system, the university was burning an estimated 36,000 tons of coal each year, which is the allotted amount according to a Title 5 operating permit issued to the university by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
By March 2014, the university will no longer need the permit and will be in full compliance with the EPA. In fact, the new system will reduce the university's energy usage by 40 percent, Lowe said.
"That's why this is such a paradigm shift," he said. "We're shifting from actually making steam and burning up fossil fuel to not making steam, making hot water, not burning fossil fuel, and still heating your buildings."
THE FUTURE OF THE PROJECT
Lowe emphasized that finding money for the new system is not something that happens over night. It's an ongoing process.
"Ultimately, the decision will be made soon," Lowe said, referring to the possibility that Ball State might have to fund the geothermal system in part with university finances.
Although Phase 1 of the system is up and running, Lowe said the process isn't as simple as flipping a switch.
The geothermal system now cools 47 buildings and heats 20 on campus. DeHority Complex and Park Hall are the next two locations to receive geothermal heating and cooling, Lowe said.
"When you're turning on a system this large, it's a process of making sure every building is running right, commissioned, balanced and working properly," Lowe said. "That's an ongoing process and will probably take a few more months."
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