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.

1. Could You Run Your City on Oats?

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. The University of Iowa's Biomass Fuel Project
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 product—significantly cheaper than
coal—to use as a fuel in its campus power plant.

5. 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.

6. "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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. "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.

10. 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.

11. 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 energy—like solar panels—into a utility grid.

12. "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.

13. 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.

14. 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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