WEST LAFAYETTE- Environmentalists who pressured Purdue University to drop plans for a new coal-fired power unit are hoping school officials' shift to natural gas eventually leads them to embrace renewable energy sources.
Purdue's trustees approved $33.1 million in contracts Friday that include replacing a coal-fired boiler at the campus power plant with a natural gas turbine that will turn a generator and produce steam from waste gases. School officials said the contract will lead to more efficient and cleaner power, the Journal & Courier reported on Sunday.
The trustees' approval of the new direction for the West Lafayette campus' power plant comes after university officials canceled a $54 million plan in February 2011 that would have indefinitely extended its reliance on coal.
The school had planned to replace its existing 50-year-old coal boiler with a newer model coal boiler. But natural gas and energy conservation are the focus of Purdue's new long-range energy plan.
Alexis Boxer, a Sierra Students Coalition organizer in West Lafayette, said the natural gas investments are a huge step away from Purdue's reliance on coal.
"While we will continue to push for truly clean and renewable energy at Purdue, we are glad that the Boilermakers are beginning to look into the future," Boxer said.
Last year, the Sierra Club and the Hoosier Environmental Council filed a legal challenge against the Indiana Department of Environmental Management after it approved an air permit for Purdue's now-canceled upgrade of its coal-fired boiler unit.
That lawsuit was dropped after the project was shelved.
Both environmental groups have continued to press Purdue to adopt energy alternatives, such as solar, geothermal, wind and other "green" technologies.
Purdue vice president for physical facilities, Bob McMains, said the school's energy plan will be dynamic and revised to incorporate future technology.
"Whatever we use has to be reliable all the time," McMains said. "We can't lose power at a lab, lose research that is being done here."
McMains said suggestions to use biomass in the plant's boiler aren't realistic with current technology. Biomass, like switchgrass or other plant-based material, does not generate enough power.
Purdue officials have maintained the reason the campus is shifting from coal to natural gas is not pressure from outside groups, but because of economics. Natural gas is already priced competitively, and as environmental regulations on coal increase, the relative cost of using natural gas will continue to drop.
Falon French, who represents the Lafayette office of the Hoosier Environmental Council, said Purdue remains reluctant to invest in renewable energy and aggressive energy-efficiency solutions such as the geothermal system Ball State University has embraced.
Ball State hopes to eventually eliminate use of its coal-fired boilers with a geothermal energy system that will tap the earth's nearly constant temperature for campus heating and cooling.
"We all want to see Purdue mentioned as one of the leading lights of 21st century energy production," French said.
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