By Marshall Swearingen MSU NEWS SERVICE
BOZEMAN – Above
ground, Montana State University’s historic Romney Hall is being
transformed into a home for high-impact student programs and much-needed
classrooms, but underground, one of the biggest energy conservation projects in
university history is also beginning.
The Romney Oval,
open space situated directly north of Romney Hall, will be underlaid
with about 80 boreholes that will anchor a high-efficiency geothermal energy
system serving Romney Hall and eventually several other nearby
buildings.
“This
geothermal field will make Romney Hall a leading energy performer at
MSU and in the state,” said Dan Stevenson, associate vice president of
University Services. The system will allow the 98-year old Romney to
use less than half as much energy per square foot as other MSU buildings such
as nearby Reid Hall, he said.
By enabling
a more efficient heating and cooling system for several campus buildings and
reducing reliance on MSU’s natural gas-fired steam heating plant, the
geothermal boreholes are projected to reduce MSU’s associated carbon emissions
by 1 million pounds per year, or about 20,000 metric tons over the lifetime of
the system, Stevenson said.
“Establishing
major energy conservation assets like this geothermal field and combining those
with strategies like solar heating and sharing energy between buildings will
allow MSU to become one of the most energy-efficient campuses anywhere,”
Stevenson said.
The geothermal
boreholes—each 700 feet deep and 7 inches in diameter—will consist of closed
loop water pipes encased in a special grout. Together, the boreholes will act
like a giant battery for storing heat extracted by Romney Hall’s
ventilation system when the building is being cooled. The boreholes will also
store heat captured by a “solar wall” that will convert sunlight to
heat on the building’s south face. The water circulating in the boreholes warms
the surrounding earth by only a few degrees, but devices called heat pumps can
later concentrate the stored energy to warm the building.
“We
think we’ll be able to heat Romney almost entirely with the
geothermal system and the solar wall,” with very little need for heat from
the central campus heating plant, Stevenson said. The main energy input will be
efficiently used electricity to power the heating, air-conditioning and
ventilation units throughout the building, he said.
Romney’s
geothermal system will connect with the one at Norm Asbjornson Hall, nearly doubling
the size of that heat battery and creating what’s called an energy district. As
other nearby buildings are upgraded, they too can connect to the system to
reduce energy demand, Stevenson said. MSU pioneered that approach during its
biggest energy conservation project, a multi-phase effort in 2011-2015 that was
integrated with the construction of Jabs Hall. The Jabs geothermal system
serves a total of four MSU buildings and has reduced energy costs an average of
$130,000 per year.
“We’ve
really reached a tipping point with these energy districts,” Stevenson
said. “We’ve proven how effective they can be, and we’re looking to expand
this concept all across campus. MSU is a pioneer in this type of large-scale
geothermal system, and our projects can serve as a model for similar systems
worldwide.”
In
preparation for constructing the boreholes, two pilot holes were drilled to
assess subsurface conditions. A plan was developed for upgrading large sewer
and storm water pipes serving adjacent buildings while doing the earthwork for
the geothermal system, Stevenson said. The plan includes adding new paths and
landscaping to the Romney Oval. A number of trees need to be removed
for the valuable project, but for every tree removed the university will replant
a new one, he said, adding that the long-term benefits of the project are
significant, and careful consideration has been made regarding the short-term
impacts to the space.
“This
is an incredibly important project for the future of MSU’s energy
infrastructure and sustainable energy design everywhere,” Stevenson said
of the Romney geothermal project.
