Officials unveiled a new $30 million decarbonization project at the University at Albany Monday. The Purple and Gold are going green.
A planned geothermal system at UAlbany's uptown campus is meant to keep the campus cool in the summer and warmer in the winter.
Speaking outside the campus's main power plant, SUNY Chancellor John King says the state's public college and university system is doing its part to help New York meet its climate goals of reducing carbon emissions by 85 percent by 2050.
“Albany is making progress as we are across the SUNY system, we've reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent compared to 1990 but if we want to get to net zero, we need more projects like this, more geothermal, more solar, electrification of all of our buildings. And I know UAlbany is committed to that, and I think we'll get there,” King said,
College president Havidán Rodríguez says not only will UAlbany get there, but it’ll lead the way.
“The 60-year-old plant behind us, somewhere over there, is a symbol of the past, and the well and the wells that are being drilled as we speak are the path to the future,” Rodríguez said.
UAlbany Energy Officer Indu says geothermal systems treat the planet like a battery, capturing heat pushed out by air conditioning and storing it underground.
“What if, instead of just rejecting that heat, you could store that heat all summer, and then when winter comes along, you can just pull that heat and use that heat now to heat your campus. Wouldn't that be, like, awesome to have a seasonal thermal battery. That's exactly what the well field is,” Indu said.
Work is already underway to drill new 800-foot test wells on campus for the geothermal system.
As Indu explains, the project will replace two gas-fired absorption coolers inside the main power plant with a pair of well fields. Each field will contain dozens of wells.
“This is part of a design effort that will design a geothermal well field for the entire Dutch Lot and also across the campus at the State Lot, and then they will be connected to geothermal heat recovery chillers that will provide electrified heating and cooling and domestic hot water to the buildings on campus,” Indu said.
Anthony Ganeo is president of Connecticut Wells, the company boring the test holes. The company will compare two different layouts to see what style might work best at UAlbany. Ganeo gave a technical explanation of the two options.
“This one has a conventional u-bend, which is a double coil of inch and a half HDPE piping that goes down to the bottom, makes a 180 degree turn and comes back to the top. So that's what we typically use in residential systems. And right next to it, the second, well, the one we just finished is what's called a Rygan product. So that's a four-and-a-half-inch diameter closed system,” Ganeo said.
State Assemblyman John McDonald sponsored legislation to support the geothermal investment. The Democrat from the 108th district says it’s government leading by example.
“The average person is worried about, is the light switch going to go on, and what's it going to cost, and can I pay my bills? We need to demonstrate, not only to the public at large, but also to labor that there's a future in geothermal, there's a future in decarbonization,” McDonald said.
UAlbany says when complete, the two wellfields will reduce the campus’ natural gas use by more than a third.
While there is currently no timeline for completion for the uptown campus geothermal project, UAlbany is seeking funding for a similar effort at its downtown campus.
