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UMass Amherst plans to power campus with 100% renewable energy by 2032

 Two workers install a tilt-up photovoltaic array on a roof.
Lucas Braun
/
Creative Commons
Two workers install a tilt-up photovoltaic array on a roof.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst has unveiled a new Carbon Zero Program for its 1,500 acre campus. The goal is for all buildings to be using 100% renewable energy by 2032.

All facilities will go from being steam and electricity powered by fossil fuel, to running on hot water heating systems, paired with geothermal energy, according to UMass officials. The new systems will be powered by solar energy and the electrical grid.

It's a big idea by the university’s description.

On Friday UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy said the university's pioneering work on such a complex, large-scale initiative will have ramifications far beyond the campus and that it can serve as a model for other large research universities.

"Given our size, we are responsible for approximately 20 percent of overall greenhouse gas emissions of Massachusetts public facilities -- making us the single largest contributor among state entities," Subbaswamy said. "So, our success in this energy transition will be the commonwealth's success."

UMass Amherst engineering professor Erin Baker said the UMass plan is very ambitious — and very doable.

"[Most] people tend to kind of not understand how quickly technology can change, and so once you have especially lofty goals and incentives, we tend to improve the technology faster than we expected," Baker said.

It's urgent that buildings everywhere become carbon neutral, Baker said adding that what happens in the next ten years on campus will go beyond Amherst.

“We're interested in hot water storage because that's a really cost effective way to store energy,” Baker said. “Almost anybody can have a hot water tank in their basement.”

Baker is also the director of the Energy Transition Institute, a project that looks at creating equitable transitions to decarbonized energy systems in U.S. cities and towns.

"We have models [at UMass], and then we have more information that we can bring to communities," Bakers said. "If we're trying to get public housing to adopt this kind of heating and maybe joint hot water storage or something like that, we'll have more data to bring to them."

No energy solution is perfect, Baker said, but with what is known about climate change, she said doing nothing is not an option and people should get behind the energy source they think works best.

UMass Amherst’s new carbon zero initiative is estimated to cost $500 million.

UMass officials said they plan "to develop a diverse portfolio of university and external funding to pay for UMass Carbon Zero infrastructure improvements ... and teaching through federal, state, corporate and philanthropic sources, as well as energy- and decarbonization-related funding."

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Jill has been reporting, producing features and commentaries, and hosting shows at NEPR since 2005. Before that she spent almost 10 years at WBUR in Boston, five of them producing PRI’s “The Connection” with Christopher Lydon. In the months leading up to the 2000 primary in New Hampshire, Jill hosted NHPR’s daily talk show, and subsequently hosted NPR’s All Things Considered during the South Carolina Primary weekend. Right before coming to NEPR, Jill was an editor at PRI's The World, working with station based reporters on the international stories in their own domestic backyards. Getting people to tell her their stories, she says, never gets old.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.