Could You Run Your City on Oats?

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Crown Capital Eco Management
Could You Run Your City on Oats?
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Could You Run Your City on Oats?

• The campuses of many state universities--with
  their miles of research laboratories and sports
  facilities to power, and tens of thousands of
  students to house--can sometimes resemble a small
  city. They can require as much energy to run as a
  small city, as well. Over the past decade,
  colleges and universities across the country have
  become concerned about their environmental
  footprint, and today they are leading the way in
  developing innovative approaches to rethinking
  energy infrastructure. Kent State University is
  installing nearly 45,000 square feet of solar
  panels on its athletic complex, while Princeton's
  power plant can now switch to run on biodiesel.

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• In many cases, students have been the ones
  instigating these campus changes, pushing their
  administrators to make commitments to reduce
  fossil fuel emissions or to set a goal of
  becoming carbon neutral. For their part, schools
  are interested in finding energy savings and
  reaching greater efficiency. As climate change
  continues to alter energy needs and alternative
  fuel sources become more widely-accepted, towns
  and institutions may find themselves drawing
  lessons from the way college campuses are meeting
  their energy goals.

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• The University of Iowa's Biomass Fuel Project
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• One afternoon about 10 years ago, the Quaker Oats
  processing facility in Cedar Rapids contacted
  administrators at the University of Iowa. The
  oatmeal, granola, and cereal manufacturer
  generates thousands of tons of oat hulls each
  year, and it wanted to know if the university was
  interested in purchasing the waste
  productsignificantly cheaper than coalto use as
  a fuel in its campus power plant.

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• After spending 1 million on two years of testing
  and other preliminary work, U of I started
  processing oat hulls in 2003, combining them with
  coal and burning the mix as fuel. The deal with
  Quaker Oats has saved the school up to a half
  million dollars each year, depending on the
  market price of coal. The institution plans to
  quadruple the amount of biomass it uses as a fuel
  by 2020, with a goal of making it 40 percent of
  the fuel mix.

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• "One of the big themes is, let's get our energy
  local," says Ferman Milster, principal engineer
  for renewables at the university's Office of
  Sustainability. He estimates that the
  university's goal of upping their local biomass
  purchases could return about 6 million annually
  to the local economy.

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• This change to U of I's energy infrastructure was
  made easier by the school's district energy
  system--a centralized boiler that delivers
  heating and cooling services to the campus. Now
  common on college campuses, these utilities are
  still found in some municipalities-- often dating
  to the early 20th century, when towns were built
  around a dense urban core. It's far less common
  today to see towns installing the same
  infrastructure. Recently, however, the small town
  of West Union, Iowa decided to give it a try,
  investing in a district energy system that will
  tap geothermal energy to lower heating and
  cooling costs for downtown businesses. The 2.5
  million project is a collaborative effort, funded
  by grants from the EPA, state government, and the
  U.S. Energy Department.

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The University of New Hampshire's Eco-Line

• Trash powers the University of New Hampshire's
  heating, cooling, and electricity-generation
  system. Rather than relying on natural gas, the
  school sources over 60 percent of its fuel from a
  landfill about 13 miles away. But while
  harnessing the methane-based gas emitted as trash
  biodegrades has helped UNH meet its
  sustainability goals, the move hasn't delivered a
  big financial payoff for the university.

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• "The market price for natural gas has dropped
  substantially," says Paul Chamberlin, associate
  vice president for facilities, so the savings
  have been less than UNH expected when the line
  was completed in 2009. The university utility
  still aims to recoup the cost of the 49 million
  investment within 10 years, by selling renewable
  energy certificates through an EPA program and by
  charging campus buildings for their energy use.

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• Thanks to clean air regulations, most landfills
  are already capturing landfill gas. But according
  to Chamberlin, that's not necessarily a useful
  fuel source for many municipalities. The
  University of New Hampshire, like many education
  institutions and some big business and
  manufacturing facilities, has a cogeneration
  plant a facility that both heats water for
  heating and cooling buildings and also captures
  waste heat to generate electricity. It's a hugely
  efficient process that makes renewables an
  attractive investment. But in more sprawling
  suburban communities, installing such a system
  doesn't make much sense.

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The University of California, San Diego's Campus
Microgrid

• During a region-wide blackout in 2011, the lights
  at the University of California, San Diego,
  stayed on. Thanks to its campus microgrid, UCSD
  has achieved near self-sufficiency in energy
  generation and distribution, lowered energy
  costs, made energy provision more reliable, and
  proven that computerized management can easily
  integrate new sources of energylike solar
  panelsinto a utility grid.

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• "It's almost like plug and play. You decide what
  you want to feed in in terms of alternative
  energy sources, and as long as you put in this
  advanced micro-grid that can manage energy and
  modulate when you use it, it becomes a very
  effective tool," says Gary Matthews, vice
  chancellor for resource management and planning.

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• The UC-San Diego microgrid has evolved over time.
  When the campus was under construction in the
  1960s, university leaders decided to manage
  buildings as a system, rather than connecting
  them individually to the local power grid. About
  12 years ago, the university added a cogeneration
  plant. Today, some 200 energy meters monitor
  energy in individual buildings, and a
  computerized management system allows facilities
  staff to fine-tune energy delivery depending on
  use patterns. Researchers and corporations are
  closely watching the electric grid, which has
  become a living demonstration of how to manage a
  diverse energy mix that includes solar panels,
  fuels cells and electric car charging stations.

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• The microgrid saves hundreds of thousands of
  dollars each month, according to the university,
  and protects laboratory and hospital space from
  the threat of power outages. Although it's
  expensive to install an energy management system
  this comprehensive, utility companies nationwide
  are starting to invest in household 'smart'
  meters they hope will make energy delivery more
  responsive to demand.
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