Just in time for winter, Oberlin College and Conservatory’s geothermal heating and cooling system is cranking up the heat. A four-year project to convert the campus’ fossil fuel-based system into an eco-friendly one is now online, supporting Oberlin’s goal of becoming 100 percent carbon neutral by 2025.
“It’s a major milestone for this infrastructure,” said Chris Norman, senior director of energy and sustainability.
The project, dubbed the Sustainable Infrastructure Program (SIP), involved replacing aging infrastructure with a stable system powered by 850 geothermal wells on the practice fields north of campus, water-source heat pumps, and an underground network of pipes. Oberlin retrofitted nearly 60 campus buildings to accommodate the new system and equipped 11 more buildings with air conditioning.
Through these infrastructure changes, the college is an estimated 90 percent of the way to its carbon neutral goal. Oberlin will spend the next year testing the geothermal system to measure how efficient it is. At the end of this process, the college will buy carbon offsets to reach 100 percent carbon neutrality.
“Oberlin’s approach is unique because we committed to reducing the college carbon footprint at the source, by using infrastructure improvements, instead of depending solely on carbon offsets,” Norman says. “It’s real climate action. It’s meaningful. We’re actually doing the work.”
Oberlin already has been a leader in higher education’s push to be more environmentally conscious. The college was the first of its peer institutions to sign the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment back in 2006, encouraging leadership at hundreds of other institutions to agree to bring their net greenhouse gas emissions to zero.
“Oberlin has been proactive about meeting the challenge of carbon neutrality,” says Oberlin President Carmen Twillie Ambar. “We’re not avoiding our responsibility to future generations. We are acting now to address our aging energy system and thereby creating a more sustainable campus—and planet.”
The campus minimized the impact on operations by completing the bulk of the conversion work during the summer months. And, now that construction is complete, students will be able to play rugby on the practice field above the geowell field just like before.
“It’s pretty exciting, because what we’re doing is transferable,” Norman says. “Other schools and institutions will be able to use it as a model. Geothermal is something you can do just about anywhere.” Already, the college is hosting tours for interested higher education institutions and government entities.
From the start, the SIP project has also served as an educational resource for Oberlin students and faculty. Students have been out in the field taking samples, talking to practitioners, and creating educational materials.
“Every step of the way, students have been on the front lines of climate action,” Norman says. “They’re directly involved with how we are implementing the new system, and charting the next steps forward.”
How Oberlin’s Geothermal System Works
In Oberlin’s geothermal system, hot water and chilled water are circulated through the underground pipe system to heat and cool buildings and to supply hot water. The closed-loop system is entirely self-contained and doesn’t extract or inject water into the ground, instead circulating it continuously through pipes 600 feet below campus.
“We’re treating the earth like a battery,” Norman said.
All told, the system will save the college an estimated $1 million per year in operations and maintenance, cut its water use by more than 5 million gallons per year, reduce sewer discharge by more than 4 million gallons per year and improve campus energy efficiency by more than 30%.
Learn more about Oberlin’s Sustainable Infrastructure Program and how students are learning about sustainability via Oberlin’s Environmental Studies and Sciences Program.