Director of Vitality and Utilities Paul Zmick mentioned the College’s strategic thermal vitality research in a digital occasion hosted by the Vitality Working Group Tuesday. Attended by roughly 25 contributors, the occasion explored how the College can scale back its utilization of fossil fuels nad lower carbon dependence in heating on Grounds.
Zmick stated that for the present research, researchers and engineers from the Vitality and Utilities Division have labored with consultants to start the method of creating wide-reaching choices in regards to the College’s future with regard to sustainability and decarbonization.
“At this level we haven’t made choices, we’ve simply constructed a decision-making framework or established issues to think about and take a look at and we additionally calculated what the carbon discount would appear to be over time,” Zmick stated.
A part of the College’s broad sustainability targets contains being carbon impartial by 2030 and phasing out fossil fuels fully by 2050. At the moment, about 20 % of the College’s vitality comes from renewable sources — together with photo voltaic installations — on Grounds. The College additionally goals to remove single-use plastics by 2025, which will probably be changed with compostable, reusable or recyclable supplies.
Scholar activism has additionally performed an necessary position in encouraging the College to undertake extra sustainable practices. DivestUVA is a company that has been advocating for the College’s disclosure of investments in fossil gasoline firms and divestiture from these industries. Most just lately, the group held a rally in December.
Based on Zmick, the method of making the research started by figuring out guiding ideas and stakeholder teams. Vitality and Utilities needed to set up the present vitality footprint of the services to grasp what vitality consumption could appear to be sooner or later, considering potential constraints reminiscent of limitations on pure fuel or electrical energy.
The research options three potential eventualities for phasing out fossil fuels. The primary state of affairs includes phasing out fossil fuel-based steam in each space of the College — except the U.Va. Well being, which is dependent upon steam to sterilize some medical gear and biohazards — and shifting to a distinct expertise that may produce steam with renewable vitality. Fossil fuel-based steam is a way for producing electrical energy during which high-pressure steam rotates a turbine.
The second state of affairs is a complete steam phaseout, which might see the whole College — together with the Medical Middle and hospital — phasing out steam by 2040. Within the first two plans, the pure fuel used for warmth manufacturing can be eradicated by 2050 and changed with renewable pure fuel or potential future applied sciences reminiscent of inexperienced hydrogen — hydrogen created via a course of powered by renewable assets.
The third state of affairs is a complete electrification, which signifies that the College would section out steam by 2040 and exchange it with electrical sources — reminiscent of photo voltaic cells or wind generators. Ideally, the College would section out all gasoline use by 2050.
For Zmick, one potential concern with the third choice is the necessity for a agency gasoline supply. A agency gasoline supply is any kind of gasoline that may be saved on Grounds or accessed at any level if wanted — electrical energy just isn’t a agency gasoline supply. Within the case of a complete electrification, the College would nonetheless want entry to a agency gasoline, reminiscent of coal and oil.
“If we totally electrify and we lose electrical energy, I’ve to have a agency vitality supply and the supply to dispatch that to be able to preserve peace within the buildings,” Zmick stated. “We have now over 640 hospital beds, we now have essential analysis and varied animals, we now have residential college students in the midst of winter — if we lose energy we have to maintain heating areas.”
Subsequent steps of the plan embrace analyzing the dangers of all three potential eventualities, reviewing the priorities of the plan, wanting into potential alternate options to steam for analysis and scientific buildings and exploring geoexchange. Geoexchange is a course of much like that utilized in acquiring geothermal vitality during which underground pipes enable warmth to be transferred from the bottom in winter and again into the bottom in summer season.
All three eventualities name for 2 of the three coal boilers to be transformed to fuel and biodiesel. Zmick hopes that the conversion might be accomplished within the subsequent three to 5 years. That is anticipated to value $36 million.
Zmick additionally went into element in regards to the College’s present use of vitality and fossil fuels. At the moment, the vast majority of fossil fuels go in the direction of heating buildings — this contains 143,533 MMBTU of coal on the predominant warmth plant and 851,770 MMBTU of pure fuel. The College at present makes use of over a million metric million British thermal models of vitality at its predominant vegetation. Utilization of fossil fuels on the College has decreased from round 1,425,000 MMBTU in 2015 to roughly 1,140,000 MMBTU in 2020.
The first objective of the research is to cut back the utilization of coal as a supply of vitality within the heating and chilled water vegetation — when burned, coal reacts with oxygen within the air to supply carbon dioxide, which in flip traps warmth within the ambiance.
“We’ve been making an attempt to reduce using coal [in plants] with a goal of 25 % or much less of the overall warmth enter for the principle plant for the yr and in 2020 we had an all-time low of 15 % as a result of favorable climate and decrease demand and coal availability points,” Zmick stated.
Zmick additionally addressed some new vitality applied sciences that Vitality and Utilities is using, reminiscent of a challenge to make use of low-temperature sizzling water and warmth restoration chillers. This expertise would enable the water to be heated by the identical gear used to make chilled water.
Zmick concluded the presentation by addressing the kinds of applied sciences the Vitality and Utilities division and consultants are wanting into to interchange coal.
“As we proceed to work on demonstrating some engageable hundreds between buildings and vegetation, we search for alternate options for steam… we exhibit… a distinct method to humidify and never use steam, we work on airflow setbacks in each buildings and laboratories,” Zmick stated. “It’s a no brainer — get off of coal.”
Following the presentation, the contributors cut up into breakout teams for a quick dialogue of the plan and to ask any questions they’d through the presentation. Throughout breakout rooms, contributors had the chance to anonymously publish their questions right into a doc. The contributors then had been introduced again into the principle room, the place Zmick responded to some questions.