Skidmore College

Background

Skidmore College, located in Saratoga Springs, has had a longtime commitment to sustainability initiatives. The College developed its sustainability plan for 2015–2025 with ambitious energy goals: 60% of electricity and 60% of campus heating and cooling from renewable sources by 2025, inclusive of campus growth.

Although at the time that the first GSHP project was begun there was no formal campus sustainability plan, a core group of dedicated Skidmore staff from the facilities, finance, and academic affairs leadership teams played a key role in maintaining focus from project to project, year to year. This group ensured that GSHP were installed whenever a target of opportunity appeared (renovation, new construction), and that district systems were installed that could link otherwise separate buildings.

A district field supplies heating and cooling energy to multiple buildings, unlike stand-alone systems that provide energy to a single building. District systems require fewer bores to support campus buildings and a reduced amount of associated infrastructure, such as circulation pumps that move heating and cooling throughout a space. These efficiencies save construction costs, reduce operational costs, and minimize operational greenhouse gas emissions over the life of the system. Skidmore estimates that district design reduced the number of geothermal bores and total field loop size by 25–35% when compared to a stand-alone system.

Most notable is the system’s ability to exchange energy loads between buildings, a term called “thermal chat.” This means that multiple buildings within the Arts Quad can communicate to distribute surplus heating loads to other parts of the complex. This ability to exchange heat loads between buildings increases the efficiency of the system and extends the bore field’s energy potential.

Now, Skidmore looks at geothermal solutions for every project moving forward. When an opportunity presents itself to prepare a new or existing building for interconnection to geothermal heating and cooling, Skidmore designs the systems to connect eventually, in some cases with additional circuit piping to accommodate future heating and cooling conversions in neighboring buildings.

Solutions Explored

Skidmore recently revised and published its Sustainable Construction and Renovation Policy , which encourages planners to “perform an evaluation of renewable energy potential (options and projects) based on project design, regulations, and incentives.”

Given the success of Skidmore’s now nearly two-decade history of successful geothermal projects with a track record of fewer maintenance issues and failures, the College regularly considers geothermal installation or readiness for each new construction or renovation project on campus. In addition, its policies encourage that new roofs be designed to be solar-ready; that natural or low-impact refrigerants be used when possible; that the campus achieve heating efficiency recommendations in alignment with LEED guidelines; and that demand response capabilities be incorporated in building infrastructure.

Solutions Implemented

Skidmore began investing in geothermal in 2006, when it constructed 10 buildings for more than 400 students to form the Northwoods Apartments complex on a former “brown” site. Skidmore had a central heating and cooling plant at the time with high-temperature hot water circulated underground. Because the apartments were to be located on the northern edge of campus, extending the underground hot water loop was not financially feasible. In addition, the plant was aging, with increasing numbers of underground piping failures and system inefficiencies. Facing these maintenance challenges, Skidmore instead pursued a stand-alone geothermal system for new construction at Northwoods Apartments.

Almost simultaneously, Murray Aikins Dining Hall was undergoing a substantial renovation project, at which point the College moved forward with a geothermal conversion there as well. By 2010, Skidmore decided to shut down the central plant for heating and install point-of-use condensing boilers in each building. (The plant is still operational for cooling.) That was the point when campus facilities personnel began the gradual shift to move more buildings toward geothermal heating and cooling.

That was the point when campus facilities personnel began the gradual shift to move more buildings toward geothermal heating and cooling.

The College then began to pursue the first of several district geothermal systems at the Arts Quad complex, which consists of an 84-bore system serving Zankel Music Theatre, Filene Hall, Saisselin Art Building, and the Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater.

Skidmore College has subsequently installed three district geothermal fields that supply heating and cooling energy to multiple buildings. In doing so, Skidmore reduced the total number of bores required to support campus buildings and the amount of associated infrastructure.

Skidmore’s three district fields are:

• The Arts Quad, with 119 bore holes, supplying heating and cooling energy to Zankel Music Theatre, Filene Hall, Saisselin Art Building, and the Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater, which can also exchange energy with each other
• Wiecking Green, with 104 bore holes, supplying heating and cooling to Wiecking, the Tang Teaching Museum, McCaffery Wagman Tennis Health and Wellness Center and the Dance Center
• A 240-bore district system providing heating and cooling for the Tisch Learning Center, Bolton Hall, Palamountain Hall, the Dana Science Center, and Skidmore's new Center for Integrated Sciences

Today, about 47% of the campus is heated and cooled with geothermal energy. These systems provide 100% of the cooling needs and about 70% of the heating needs of the apartments and music center and about 95% of the heating needs of Murray Aikins Dining Hall.

Timeline

Budget and Financing

All ground-source heat pump projects were paid for through Skidmore’s capital budget and various incentives. No financing was used. The cost to install the Arts Quad geothermal district system, which included the cost of engineering and design, equipment, building, drilling the bores in the well field, digging and backfilling the wells and pipes, was $1.4 million. The additional anticipated cost to complete the project and tie in the remaining buildings that were not already online was $500,000, bringing the total to just under $2 million.

For the Arts Quad, Skidmore received an $800,000 grant from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) Higher Education Capital Matching Grant Program (HECap), a three-to-one matching grant, with the match coming from the College’s capital budget. NYSERDA and National Grid also provided incentive funding for district geothermal projects.