A new natural gas plant will supply the main campus with one-third of its energy, reducing Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½’s environmental impact and saving millions in annual energy costs.<\/p>\n
A giant Mitsubishi engine measuring 30 feet long by 10 feet wide will generate power for Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½’s main campus from a natural gas line. Just like a car, power is generated when the engine burns the gas.<\/p>\n
The engine will be housed in a 5,000-square-foot plant at the corner of Gemini Circle and Libra drive, across from the water tower. The facility will be located next to the main utility plant.<\/p>\n
Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ broke ground on the $9 million plant last week, and is scheduled to be completed in December. The university projects the plant will generate about $2.5 million in savings per year.<\/p>\n
The energy produced from natural gas will reduce Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½’s environmental impact by 30 percent. This means that the electricity produced by the new plant will be one-third cleaner than the equivalent energy purchased from the university’s current energy supplier.<\/p>\n
Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½’s plant will go a step further in reducing energy waste. The plant is designed to capture rejected heat from the engine and use it to fuel a chiller. Known as an “absorption chiller,” it will produce 1,000 tons of chilled water to supplement the campus underground cooling system.<\/p>\n
“We’re doing this because natural gas is clean, abundant and cheap,” said David Norvell, Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½’s director of Sustainability and Energy Management. “That’s why energy companies across the country are investing billions in natural gas.”<\/p>\n
Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ is the only university in Florida to invest in natural gas by building its own plant.<\/p>\n
To connect into the natural gas source, pipes will be pushed into place underground, eliminating the need for Gemini Circle traffic to be disrupted during the plant’s construction phase.<\/p>\n
The plant will feature an advanced system that will continuously monitor emissions, and will be designed to reduce emissions beyond current federal and state mandates.<\/p>\n
Safety measures are a top priority. Norvell emphasized that Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½’s commercial-grade natural gas system will be more complex than a residential gas line. The system will be monitored 24-7 and features sophisticated detectors that constantly check for leaks.<\/p>\n
Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ will hire a full-time coordinator to oversee the plant’s operation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new natural gas plant will supply the main campus with one-third of its energy, reducing Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½’s environmental impact and saving millions in annual energy costs. A giant Mitsubishi engine measuring 30 feet long by 10 feet wide will generate power for Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½’s main campus from a natural gas line. Just like a car, power is generated when the engine…","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":19604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1068,1557,4546],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-19603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-construction","tag-energy","tag-sustainability"],"yoast_head":"\n