Educational institutions are instrumental in accelerating the transition to clean energy. As centers of scholarship, innovation, and technical expertise, they are well-positioned to lead the charge towards sustainability.
Support for the clean energy transition is prevalent across the nation, especially among youth. Students can harness such support in their schools by “showing that clean energy is the future and creating an environment where inaction is no longer a possibility,” noted Emma Fisher, Climate Defender Organizer at PennEnvironment.
Once support is gained, the transition can be started with any one step outlined below. Looking to other schools on the path to clean energy and reaching out to their sustainability directors can also be helpful in making a start, as Fisher indicated.
Taking an initial step will then increase openness to taking others, an observation pointed out in The Psychology of Sustainable Behavior. In other words, it gets us thinking, “What’s next?”
And asking what’s next is a powerful tool for change in itself. It not only leads us to opt for renewable electricity instead of grid electricity or an electric bus instead of a diesel-powered bus, but more importantly, it allows us to grasp the possibility of an alternative choice, and ultimately, the possibility of a sustainable future.
Here are tools educational institutions can use to transition to clean energy as outlined in Environment America’s fact sheets, which can be found at https://environmentamerica.org. While written with higher education institutions in mind, much of the report’s guidance is applicable to K-12 schools as well. As described in more detail below, the tools fall into four focus areas including:
Energy Efficiency & Conservation
Energy Efficiency in Campus Buildings
Energy Conservation
On-Campus Renewables & Microgrids
On-Campus Solar Energy
On-Campus Wind Energy
Geothermal Heating & Cooling
Solar Heating & Hot Water
Microgrids & Energy Storage
“Power” in Green Power Purchasing
Renewable Energy Purchasing
Going Electric & Car-Free
Building Electrification
Electric Transportation
Sustainable Transportation
Energy Efficiency & Conservation
Energy Efficiency in Campus Buildings
Improving energy efficiency in buildings can save costs and accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy. Campus buildings are responsible for more than four-fifths of the total energy consumed by universities and improving efficiency in this sector can cut overall energy use by up to 60%.
There are many opportunities for increasing energy efficiency in campus buildings:
Out-of-Date Infrastructure: With many older buildings that rely on outdated equipment, universities can make cost-effective investments to increase building performance. Installing LED lighting, improving insulation, and upgrading heating and cooling equipment can all lead to large energy savings. Georgetown University, for example, saved at least 3.3 million kWh of electricity and 82,000 million Btu of natural gas after investing in retrofits and committing to energy efficiency in new construction. These energy savings cut CO2 emissions equivalent to taking nearly 1,200 cars off the road.
Energy-Intensive Facilities: Most colleges have facilities that are uniquely energy-intensive and provide powerful opportunities for energy savings. Research laboratories in particular require large energy inputs, which universities across the country are aiming to reduce. At Harvard University, for instance, laboratories account for 44% of energy consumption, which the Green Labs Program works to reduce through different initiatives. By tracking energy use in labs and holding annual campaigns to turn off lights, the program effectively reduced energy used for lighting by 36.4% during the first year and by 50.9% during the second.
Colleges are well-equipped to overcome barriers to energy efficiency improvements:
Controlled Environments: Colleges campuses are highly structured, controlled environments through which resources can be deployed quickly.
Environmental Awareness: Environmentally-conscious students, faculty, and staff across many schools are eager to develop and implement energy efficiency solutions.
Innovation Hubs: University campuses provide testing grounds for energy-saving solutions, such as net-zero energy building and passive house techniques.
Energy Conservation
Transitioning to clean energy depends on both increasing clean energy supply and reducing energy demand. Conservation is a powerful tool to reduce demand. Simple shifts in energy use on campus can save as much as 20% of total energy consumption.
Energy conservation programs often combine:
Community Initiatives: Inexpensive and easily-implemented social interaction programs, such as competitions, foster energy conservation awareness and encourage students and faculty to reduce their energy consumption.
Smart Technology: Used across many colleges, smart sensors and feedback displays show energy use in real time and enable students, faculty, and administrators to understand the benefits of conserving energy.
Efficient energy use can be encouraged through various strategies, which are being tested across universities:
Motivation: A main obstacle in reducing energy use is the lack of frequent and intuitive feedback about energy consumption. Oberlin College overcame this problem by offering students real-time feedback about their electricity usage, which reduced their consumption by 32% over two weeks.
Norms: Social norms are powerful in shaping behavior and their dynamic nature creates opportunities for change. In building “cultures of conservation,” schools are bringing sustainable behaviors into the realm of normal.
Capacity-Building: Students may not know all the different ways to save energy. Efficiency tips can be effectively shared through social networking, digital media, and one-on-one conversations, all strategies which reduced residence hall energy use by 3.7% at the University of California, Merced.
2. On-Campus Renewables & Microgrids
On-Campus Solar Energy
Solar energy is pollution-free, virtually inexhaustible, safe, and efficient. As such, it is key in shaping a clean energy future.
In addition to clean energy, solar installations offer other benefits:
Cost Savings: Solar energy systems dropped in price by 70% between 2010 and 2018, and often provide cheaper energy than fossil fuels. Butte College’s solar energy project, which consists of 25,000 solar panels, will save taxpayers and the school more than $100 million over 30 years.
Collaboration: Solar energy projects provide educational and training opportunities for students.
Innovation: Universities have played an important role in solar technology innovation ever since the University of Delaware established the first laboratory dedicated to photovoltaic research in 1972.
Leadership: A university’s leadership in solar energy can attract experts and students eager to develop the technology.
Colleges are uniquely-suited to tackle the challenges associated with solar energy:
Research: Hubs of innovation, universities are well-positioned to research and prototype next-generation solar cells.
Vocational Training: Students can gain valuable, pre-professional experience in the design, production, and oversight of on-campus solar farms.
Proximity to Energy Demand: Campus rooftops, parking lots, and marginal open spaces present opportunities to install solar technologies in close proximity to energy demand, eliminating the need for long-distance energy transmission and reducing associated losses.
Storage: Colleges have incentive to adopt energy storage to meet resilience and emergency preparedness goals, which can work well in conjunction with adopting solar energy. At the University of California, Riverside, for example, excess solar energy is used to charge electrical vehicles, which serve as a source of energy storage.
On-Campus Wind Energy
Wind energy is also key in shaping a clean energy future. In 2016, wind energy across the U.S. achieved greenhouse gas emission reductions equivalent to taking 33.7 million cars off the road.
In addition to clean energy, on-campus wind offers other benefits:
Cost Savings: On-shore wind power has dropped in price by 90% since the 1980s and is often cheaper than energy derived from fossil fuels, especially when accounting for tax incentives.
Training & Research Opportunities: On-campus wind energy provides opportunities for cutting-edge research and vocational training. Wind turbine technician is one of America’s two fastest-growing jobs, along with solar photovoltaic installer.
Universities are uniquely-suited to overcome the challenges associated with wind energy:
Financing: Colleges can enter into power purchase agreements with utilities to install wind systems without upfront capital costs.
Fluctuations in Energy Output: Universities are developing strategies to deal with varying wind speeds. Case Western Reserve University, for example, treats its campus as a “living laboratory” and mitigates variable production from its wind turbines using the Department of Energy’s VOLTTRON software.
Freedom to Experiment: Colleges have freedom to experiment with new strategies to integrate wind energy. At Quinnipiac University, for instance, 25 micro turbines, which have a smaller footprint, create a kinetic sculpture garden that also powers half of the external lighting at its York Hill campus.
Geothermal Heating & Cooling
Geothermal energy is another method used to meet heating and cooling needs without fossil fuels. Universities across the country are installing geothermal systems to not only achieve sustainability targets, but also to save costs and create educational opportunities.
In addition to clean energy, geothermal systems offer other benefits:
Low Operational Costs: Geothermal systems have lower operating and maintenance costs than conventional heating systems, leading to greater savings. Ball State University’s geothermal system, which regulates indoor air temperature in 47 buildings, saves the school $2 million each year.
Scaling: Geothermal technology can be scaled to work across individual buildings or entire campuses.
Educational Tools: Energy dashboards can serve as educational tools to help students and faculty monitor the performance of geothermal installations on campus.
Universities reduce barriers to geothermal energy:
Overcoming Installation Disturbance: Universities have more flexibility to accommodate the large disruptions often necessary in installing geothermal energy systems. Major stages can be scheduled for summer break or other inactive times to avoid disruption.
Innovation: Universities are well-equipped to research and test innovative geothermal applications.
Solar Heating & Hot Water
Electrification is not the only method to meet hot water and heating needs without fossil fuels. Solar heat and hot water systems can also be used and are becoming increasingly adopted by colleges across the United States.
How do solar heat and hot water systems work? They capture heat from sunlight to:
Heat water pumped to a tank for storage and use in cooking, bathing, laundry, and space heating,
Heat or cool air in buildings using solar air heat collectors, and
Heat or cool buildings through passive solar design that takes advantage of the sun’s energy and reduces need for mechanical systems.
In addition to environmental benefits, solar heating and hot water systems many others, including:
Cost Savings: Solar thermal energy reduces heating and cooling costs and dependence on volatile fossil fuel prices.
Academic, Research & Training Opportunities: Solar thermal energy projects create educational, research, and pre-professional opportunities for students, and encourage engagement with local communities.
Microgrids & Energy Storage
Microgrids are self-contained electric grids that can operate as an “island” independent of the central power grid. Installing microgrids and energy storage systems on campus ensures reliable access to electricity and paves the way to a 100% clean energy future.
Microgrids powered by renewable energy, however, come with challenges:
Intermittent Electricity Generation: Wind and solar power generation is variable and may not synchronize with energy demand.
Distribution Protection: Generation within the distribution systems means energy flows both ways, which can make regulating voltage difficult.
To address these challenges, microgrids can be combined with:
Energy storage to save excess renewable energy for periods when generation is low.
Smart technology to match renewable energy supply and demand.
Colleges are well-suited to develop microgrids:
Self-Contained Environments: The self-contained nature of campuses makes them perfect candidates for microgrid development.
Importance of Reliability: As microgrids can continue to function during central power grid outages, they are especially important in university settings with research facilities where loss of power can have detrimental consequences.
Expert Knowledge: Colleges can benefit from faculty knowledge and motivated student bodies to manage energy supply and demand in a campus microgrid.
Living Labs: As “living labs,” universities can experiment with smart technology in predicting and regulating energy consumption to better align with supply.
3. “Power” in Green Power Purchasing
Renewable Energy Purchasing
Colleges with insufficient space and limited funds can purchase clean energy generated off-campus or help to finance its production. Renewable power purchasing agreements avoid upfront costs and provide incentives for developers to increase renewable energy capacity. This option enables all schools to transition to clean energy.
Universities can purchase renewable energy in several ways:
Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs): Electricity can be purchased directly from electricity providers, which require no upfront capital costs, generate long-term cost savings, and provide a fixed price over a long contract term, offering protection from volatile energy prices. As of January 2016, 61 universities financed over 100 megawatts of solar energy capacity through PPAs. To achieve 100% renewable electricity, Boston University, for example, signed a PPA to purchase wind power equivalent to its electricity usage for 15 years starting in 2020.
Net Metering Credit Purchase Agreements (NMAs): Some states allow universities to purchase net metering credits from renewable energy producers, which helps offset carbon emissions and finance clean energy projects.
Renewable Energy Credits (RECs): Colleges can also purchase RECs to gain the right to claim credit for renewable electricity generation towards their own clean energy goals. These purchases help developers to finance renewable energy projects. As of April 2016, 81 universities had contracts to purchase RECs. Georgetown University, for instance, with little space to deploy large-scale renewable energy installations bought RECs equivalent to 129% of its electricity use in 2016. By exceeding 100% renewable power, the school supports clean power both on- and off- campus.
4. Going Electric & Car-Free
Building Electrification
Committing to 100% renewable electricity is a great start, but achieving 100% clean energy requires eliminating the use of fossil fuels for all energy uses – including hot water, heating, and cooling in campus buildings. Over half of a university’s energy consumption comes from water and space heating, which are primarily powered by natural gas and other fossil fuels. Transitioning these systems away from fossil fuels is therefore also key in achieving 100% clean energy.
In addition to environmental benefits, building electrification offers many others, including:
Increased Efficiency: Electric heat recovery chillers, or heat pumps, are twice as efficient as natural gas systems in providing heating and hot water.
Cost Savings: Building electrification is becoming more cost-effective as technologies improve and become more widely used. Electric heat pumps, for example, are already cost-competitive with conventional systems because they are highly efficient and can replace both heating and air conditioning units. Electrifying buildings also offers protection from unpredictable and increasing fossil fuel prices.
Safety: Electric water and space heating avoids the hazards associated with gas and oil-fired systems, such as carbon monoxide leaks and explosions.
Colleges are well-positioned to electrify buildings:
Frequent Construction & Renovation: Electrification can be more economical during construction. Because universities frequently renovate and add buildings, they have many opportunities to electrify at lower costs.
Heavy Energy Use: Universities consume a lot of energy, with buildings accounting for over 80% of their total consumption. The environmental and financial benefits of building electrification are therefore magnified on university campuses.
Innovation Hubs: As centers of technological development, universities are great places to develop new technologies and train students to deploy them on campus.
Electric Transportation
Renewable electricity and fossil-fuel-free heating and cooling systems are not enough in achieving 100% clean energy. Electrifying transportation, the leading source of greenhouse gas emission in the United States, is also essential.
In addition to environmental benefits, electrifying transportation offers many others, including:
Renewable Energy Integration: Adopting electric vehicles makes it easier to integrate solar and wind power.
Cost Savings: Powering vehicles with electricity instead of gasoline is cheaper in all 50 states.
Research Opportunities: Initiatives to advance electric transportation on campus offer various research opportunities for students and faculty. Students at the University of Michigan, for example, collaborate with industry experts through the university’s “Battery Lab.”
Universities are well-suited to tackle the challenges of electrifying transportation:
Cost Barriers: Although battery prices fell by 80% in six years, their upfront cost still makes electric vehicles expensive for many buyers. Universities can overcome this barrier by leveraging funding from several sources, including federal and private funds. Students can also make contributions. At the University of California, Irvine, for example, students voted for and funded an all-electric campus bus fleet, paying $40 each quarter to cover bus purchase and operating costs.
Charging: In addition to overnight charging, other methods have been developed to charge campus shuttles. The University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Utah State University, for example, have pioneered a “charge-as-you-go” technology. In this system, charging plates at bus stops charge buses from underneath through induction charging when they stop.
Sustainable Transportation
Electric vehicles are not the only option to shift transportation systems away from fossil fuels. Promoting more sustainable options like public transportation, walking, and biking is another important strategy.
Reducing vehicle trips offers other benefits in addition to decreasing dependence on fossil fuels:
Recognition: Sustainable transportation boosts colleges’ green credentials, making them more attractive.
Town-Gown Relations: Reducing driving can help to avoid traffic in neighborhoods surrounding campus.
Quality of Life: With less vehicle exhaust and noise, campuses are cleaner and more enjoyable.
Accessibility: Increasing sustainable transportation options and offering discounted access to public transit increases accessibility for students and faculty. Cornell University, for example, offers free bus passes, easy membership access to the fuel-efficient vehicles of the Ithaca CarShare service, a RideShare program for faculty, and a bikeshare program for students. As a result, 89% of students and 47% of staff commute to campus sustainably.
College are well-positioned to tackle sustainable transportation challenges:
Convenience: Biking and walking are often the quickest and most convenient mode of travel on college campuses, where distances are short and rates of car ownership are low. In fact, college towns have some of the highest rates of bicycle commuting and at least 90 universities have bike share programs.
Real Estate: Many universities have strong financial incentives for limiting the use of cars, which consume valuable campus real estate.
Safety: Dense hubs of activity, college campuses are often more dangerous with car traffic. Enhancing sustainable transportation and creating more car-free spaces can help to increase campus safety.
With these strategies outlined in Environment America’s fact sheets and tips from experts like Emma Fisher, the transition to clean energy is made simpler. It can start with one step, which gets us thinking “what’s next?”
Report summary compiled by Maryana Dumalska, intern at Boyer Sudduth Environmental Consultants and recent graduate from Boston College with a degree in Environmental Geoscience.
