On Earth Day 2017, Dartmouth released the “Our Green Future” report, an action plan to shrink Dartmouth’s carbon footprint. The plan includes a number of goals in six operational categories. Under energy, 3 goals are a priority focus:
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from campus operations by 50% by 2025, and by 80% by 2050
Transition the campus heating system from No. 6 fuel oil to renewable sources by 2025
Improve the efficiency of the energy distribution system by 20%
Energy efficiency is a key component of achieving these goals and throughout the past year, Dartmouth’s Engineering Team has been hard as work on both bringing renewable energy to the campus and on reducing energy demand through efficiency projects.
Between April 2017 and April 2018, Dartmouth installed 5 new solar installations on campus buildings. The rooftops of Berry Sports Center, David Varsity House, Maclean Engineering Sciences, the barn at the Dartmouth Organic Farm, and the newly renovated ’67 Bunkhouse at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge are now generating electricity and offering opportunities for education and research. Building on this momentum, Dartmouth is looking to add up to 8 additional solar installations to the campus in the coming year.
In addition to adding renewable energy to the campus, Dartmouth also remains committed to improving energy efficiency as a key strategy. Two major efficiency projects were completed in 2017 resulting in significant energy savings and reducing our usage of #6 fuel oil. The tables below summarize these projects and their savings in gallons of fuel oil.
4 additional projects are currently in planning phase for implementation in FY 2019. These projects are the Steele Hall Hot Water Conversion and Energy Retrofit, the Baker-Berry Energy Retrofit, the Burke Energy Retrofit, and the North Chilled Water Plan Energy Retrofit. Once implemented these projects will save ~400,000 gallons of number six fuel oil annually. Finally, multiple lighting retrofit projects are planned across the campus.
The consistent implementation of energy efficiency projects means that Dartmouth has significantly and steadily reduced the amount of fuel oil consumed, even as campus square footage has increased. Dartmouth’s annual fuel consumption has dropped by over 1,000,000 gallons from 2010 consumption levels.
Big thank you to our outstanding Energy and Engineering Team in Campus Services for completing this work and keeping Dartmouth moving towards its goals!