New system planned
Geothermal system will not impact students, only environment
Although Ball State University is undertaking the largest geothermal project in the history of the United States, the installation is not expected to inconvenience students and faculty. Ball State plans to begin work on the approximately $66 million project May 10, the day after May Commencement, Director of Engineering and Operations Jim Lowe said. The geothermal unit will heat and cool every building on campus and will replace the university's current heating and cooling system. To install the system, crews will drill fields of about 450 wells at multiple locations across campus - beginning with the recreational fields north of the Duck Pond. The drilling will be the biggest physical presence on campus and will cause the drilling areas to be shut off for several weeks, said Bob Koester, director of the Center for Energy Research, Education and Service. The drilling will likely cause a modest inconvenience for students and faculty, Koester said, but the project will be unnoticeable when complete. "Once everything is networked and covered back up, you won't even know it's there," he said. "A ball field will still be a ball field and so forth." The drill sites for wells are expected to include areas such as LaFollette Field, Ball State Soccer Field and parking lots. The sites were chosen because they will not be built upon in the future, allowing for easy access to the underground piping if further work would be needed, Lowe said. The well fields will all be underground so they will be unnoticeable to people, much like the current heating and cooling system. They will connect to three thermal stations on campus that will distribute heat and chill to the entire campus. While the physical presence will not be noticeable to most people, the university will notice an approximate $2 million a year savings, Lowe said. Geothermal is cheaper than the current system, he said, because it does not require expensive natural gas. Instead of using natural gas, geothermal uses the ground's consistent temperature - which is approximately 55 degrees F in Indiana - to provide heat and chill. Water running through pipes in underground well fields picks up the ground's consistent heat and transports it to thermal stations that distribute it to buildings. In addition to eliminating natural gas consumption, Ball State will also be able to shut down the coal heating plant on campus - the largest polluter in Delaware County, according to James Eflin, chairperson of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management. The university will still have to use electricity, which is almost all created from coal burning in Indiana, to power the geothermal system. With the shift of coal burning from the on-campus heating plant to an off-campus electricity producer, it is hard to determine how much the geothermal project will actually benefit the environment, Eflin said. Eflin, who said he is not an expert on the Ball State geothermal project, said the university's ability to become completely carbon neutral and eliminate its effect on the environment would be contingent on finding electricity that does not use fossil fuels. The problem is that Indiana has the highest dependency on coal in the nation, he said. "When you've got an addiction, it's hard to shake the addiction, and Indiana has an addiction to coal," Eflin said.
Geothermal system will not impact students, only environment
Although Ball State University is undertaking the largest geothermal project in the history of the United States, the installation is not expected to inconvenience students and faculty. Ball State plans to begin work on the approximately $66 million project May 10, the day after May Commencement, Director of Engineering and Operations Jim Lowe said. The geothermal unit will heat and cool every building on campus and will replace the university's current heating and cooling system. To install the system, crews will drill fields of about 450 wells at multiple locations across campus - beginning with the recreational fields north of the Duck Pond. The drilling will be the biggest physical presence on campus and will cause the drilling areas to be shut off for several weeks, said Bob Koester, director of the Center for Energy Research, Education and Service. The drilling will likely cause a modest inconvenience for students and faculty, Koester said, but the project will be unnoticeable when complete. "Once everything is networked and covered back up, you won't even know it's there," he said. "A ball field will still be a ball field and so forth." The drill sites for wells are expected to include areas such as LaFollette Field, Ball State Soccer Field and parking lots. The sites were chosen because they will not be built upon in the future, allowing for easy access to the underground piping if further work would be needed, Lowe said. The well fields will all be underground so they will be unnoticeable to people, much like the current heating and cooling system. They will connect to three thermal stations on campus that will distribute heat and chill to the entire campus. While the physical presence will not be noticeable to most people, the university will notice an approximate $2 million a year savings, Lowe said. Geothermal is cheaper than the current system, he said, because it does not require expensive natural gas. Instead of using natural gas, geothermal uses the ground's consistent temperature - which is approximately 55 degrees F in Indiana - to provide heat and chill. Water running through pipes in underground well fields picks up the ground's consistent heat and transports it to thermal stations that distribute it to buildings. In addition to eliminating natural gas consumption, Ball State will also be able to shut down the coal heating plant on campus - the largest polluter in Delaware County, according to James Eflin, chairperson of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management. The university will still have to use electricity, which is almost all created from coal burning in Indiana, to power the geothermal system. With the shift of coal burning from the on-campus heating plant to an off-campus electricity producer, it is hard to determine how much the geothermal project will actually benefit the environment, Eflin said. Eflin, who said he is not an expert on the Ball State geothermal project, said the university's ability to become completely carbon neutral and eliminate its effect on the environment would be contingent on finding electricity that does not use fossil fuels. The problem is that Indiana has the highest dependency on coal in the nation, he said. "When you've got an addiction, it's hard to shake the addiction, and Indiana has an addiction to coal," Eflin said.
