SUNY-ESF is taking steps to improve energy efficiency, using state-of-the-art heating technology to do so.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, in conjunction with the New York Biomass Energy Alliance and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, held Bioenergy Day on the SUNY-ESF campus last Wednesday. The purpose of the event was to educate the public on cleaner, more efficient ways to heat with wood and advocate the value of sustainable forestry.

The SUNY-ESF was a natural setting for the event as the objectives and practices of the college coincide well with the goals of the event, said Claire Dunn, director of communications at SUNY-ESF.

Michael Kelleher, the executive director of energy and sustainability at the college, said one of SUNY-ESF’s goals is to become carbon neutral in the next year. Through the use of solar panels, a small wind turbine, a green roof on Walters Hall and the combined heat and power system, the university is moving towards having no net carbon emission by 2015.

“We focus on trying to help students understand the different options that will make our energy use more sustainable in the future; biomass, solar, wind, improved energy efficiency, behaviors to conserve energy,” Kelleher said.

The combined heat and power system housed within the Gateway Center on the SUNY-ESF campus is designed to use biomass pellets and natural gas to provide the campus with 60 percent of its heating needs and 20 percent of its electrical power. When the electricity made at a generating plant is bought, it takes about three units of natural gas to produce one unit of electricity, which means that it is only one-third as efficient, Kelleher said.

By substituting natural gas for biomass wood pellets and using a local generating system that is smaller and more efficient, the campus is able to cut the waste in half that would be typical of generating electricity and steam.

Mark Watson, who manages the environmental research program at NYSERDA, focuses on documenting the emissions performance of different technologies to understand how these technologies behave and what their emission profiles are. NYSERDA, a corporation focused on implementing energy efficient programs, then provides research and development funding to help improve those technologies, he said.

The new technologies focus on using wood as a renewable fuel and dramatically reducing the air quality impact, but also using significantly less wood as it is being used more efficiently, Watson said.

Watson said there are many benefits to using wood as a fuel source. It is significantly cheaper than either heating oil or propane for houses, and it provides an opportunity to displace fossil fuels with renewable fuels. It has a much smaller carbon footprint too, he added.

Dunn said it is important to call attention to these initiatives so that the public becomes aware of the importance of this issue.

“You can’t educate people or encourage them to acquire new habits if they don’t have the right information,” she said.

Watson said he believes these events should be taken advantage of as they are an opportunity for the public to learn about new fuel source options that are environmentally friendly as well as much more energy efficient and cost saving, Kelleher said.

“Oftentimes, people fall back to the default of the older, conventional technologies without really taking the time to know what new technologies are out there or to realize that the new technologies are actually at a point where they’re no longer considered a ‘cutting-edge, emerging technology,’” Watson said. “They’re state of the art, but they’re actually available and getting into the market place right now.”

Published on October 28, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Anjali: acalwis@syr.edu