Capital Region BOCES

• Eliminates ~15,000 gallons of oil per year
  
  
• Reduce site energy by 38% per year
  
  
• Reduced site emissions by 64%, or ~127 MTCO2e per year

Institutional Goals

Carbon neutrality by 2035.

Background

The Bard College campus covers approximately 1,260 acres of fields and forested land bordering the Hudson River in New York State. Hidden beneath the bucolic landscape of the main campus lies an interesting academic statistic: nearly one geothermal borehole per every three enrolled students—and that ratio is growing.

Bard has been a leader and early adopter of heat pumps and geothermal, with air-source heat pump systems on campus dating to the late 1980s, and ground-source systems the early 1990s, thanks in large part to the legacy of former Director of Physical Plant, Richard Griffiths, from 1970–1998, who believed in the technology and gave it its debuts. Nearly 50% of the main campus building area utilizes geothermal technology for heating and cooling, and it is the default for all new construction projects.  This accounts for more than 40 buildings and nearly 674,000 square feet. There are more than 630 geothermal boreholes hidden beneath the surface across campus.

The Charles P. Stevenson, Jr. Library, located on the Annandale main campus, serves as a critical social and academic hub for the student and faculty community. The Library comprises three buildings: Hoffman (built in 1893), Kellogg (added in 1973), and Stevenson (added in 1993). 

All existing HVAC infrastructure within the library—including, but not limited to, the conventional chiller and cooling tower, oil-fired boiler plant, and controls automation system—were all at the end of their useful life. After years of development and careful planning, the library was identified as a candidate for the first existing building to be retrofitted with ground-source heat pumps and paired with a geothermal borefield, consisting of 50 boreholes each at a depth of 500 feet.

Solutions Explored

Bard’s Office of Sustainability works closely with the Operations and Facilities teams on a deferred maintenance plan, identifying buildings with HVAC systems nearing their end-of-life and replacement cycle. This has essentially become the step-by-step process for prioritizing buildings that are candidates for an energy overhaul.

The Library's HVAC system, approaching 33 years old, was identified as a priority for replacement. But rather than simply replace the system one-for-one with conventional equipment—and locking in fuel oil for the next 25 or more years with no payback—the College saw the opportunity to transform the building's energy infrastructure. Recognizing the adjacent field as a resource for a geothermal borefield, and wanting to reduce the building's energy and carbon footprints, and eliminate fuel oil use in perpetuity, the project team pursued a new, integrated heat pump plant to provide heating and cooling. Although the transformation was a more costly effort, the long-term energy savings and improved maintenance outlook, in the context of building that will hopefully last for another century or more, made the decision and easy one, given Bard's successful track record of geothermal on campus.

Solutions Implemented

Brightcore, a renewable energy solutions provider, delivered services starting with feasibility and design, drilling and ground loop installation, establishing mechanical connections, and procuring incentives, and will, upon completion, perform ongoing system performance monitoring.

For the Stevenson Library, 50 boreholes were drilled to a depth of 500 feet, containing 1-¼-inch-diameter geothermal loops and thermally enhanced grout. Previously, 500 feet was the maximum depth one could drill without a mining permit, but now regulations are being developed to make geothermal boreholes exempt by New York law. On Manhattan, boreholes are often angled and go deeper—up to 2,000 feet in some cases.

Financing

The geothermal conversion and HVAC overhaul at the Stevenson Library was funded using a traditional loan structure, supported by NYS Clean Heat incentives and federal Investment Tax Credits made eligible to nonprofit entities via the Inflation Reduction Act.

Timeline

• 1893—Hoffman Library is constructed
• 1984—First air-source heat pump building comes online at Bard College
• 1994—First geothermal (ground source) system is installed at Bard College
• Late 1990s—Geothermal becomes default system for all new construction
• 2024—Construction begins for geothermal conversion of the Charles P. Stevenson, Jr., Library