Geothermal Energy Switch Makes College History

Nife Joshua ’26 Staff Writer

The college marked a tremendous milestone in reducing its carbon footprint over Spring Break when it broke ground on a construction project that will transition the campus’s heating and cooling system to being powered by geothermal energy, an environmentally friendly alternative to the current steam-powered system. In the words of Director of Sustainability Wes Dripps ’92, who explained the new system and its significance to me, “We need to walk the walk; we can’t just talk the talk.” The new construction signifies that the college is doing just that.

This development, which comes after years of planning and collaboration between the college and partner groups, is a key step in the Climate Action Plan (CAP), which aims to decarbonize the campus by 2030 — meaning that the college will eliminate or offset all their carbon emissions and be effectively carbon neutral.

The construction will reconfigure campus piping infrastructure, as the new system will heat buildings using low-temperature hot water instead of steam. The water will be heated using geothermal energy, which is a renewable resource. Steam production, in contrast, depends on the emissions-heavy burning of fossil fuels.

The low-temperature hot water will still be able to meet the college’s heating needs without requiring as much energy for production. This ultimately allows the college to use renewable geothermal energy to power the heating system, instead of burning natural gas. The new system will still require a small amount of additional energy to heat the water, but this will be covered by electricity, which can be powered by renewable energy in the future

This brief summary aside, fully appreciating the significance of the college’s transition to geothermal energy requires an understanding of the history of energy generation at Amherst — from the college’s old system, to efforts to bring about change, to the nuances and rationale underlying our new system.

Our Old System

Since 2009, a large component of the college’s energy needs have been fulfilled by anatural-gas-powered cogeneration system. This means that the college’s heating and cooling system relies on steam generated by burning fossil fuels. This process takes place in a power plant behind the Science Center and across the train tracks, which burns natural gas to produce much of the college’s electricity and heat power. Being a cogeneration system, the heat generated from the plant is used to boil water that gen- erates steam, which can be used for two purposes: burning more natural gas or driving a steam turbine to generate more electricity.

Emissions associated with cogeneration are considered “Scope 1” emissions under the Environmental Protection Agency’s guidelines for classifying the sources of an organization’s greenhouse gas emissions. “Scope 1” emissions come directly from sources owned and operated by the college, while “Scope 2” refers to indirect emissions caused by the college’s purchasing of energy generated by another plant.

Amherst’s on-site electricity

Continued on page 9