A $963,000 grant will help generate heat and electricity for the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The heat and electricity will come from heat and electric generating systems, which will provide 70 percent of heating needs and 20 percent of electric needs for the campus, said Michael Kelleher, ESF’s director of renewable energy systems. The systems will operate at 75 percent efficiency compared to the typical 33 percent efficiency, he said.

‘What is unique about these systems is that we will both generate electricity, and after we generate electricity, we will make use of the waste heat,’ Kelleher said.

The grant, given to ESF from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, was the only project in Central New York to receive funds from NYSERDA, according to an article published in The Post-Standard on April 21.

The grant to ESF is part of $20 million in grants that NYSERDA allocated for combined heat and power projects at 19 paper mills, hospitals, apartment complexes and supermarkets, as well as other facilities across the state, according to the article.

A gasification boiler in the basement of the Gateway Building — currently under construction next to the Carrier Dome — will heat willow wood pellets to produce steam heat, Kelleher said in the article.

The basement of the Gateway Building will also house three microturbines that burn natural gas for heat and electricity, according to the article.

Kelleher said the ESF project is supposed to be completed by June 2012.

The combined heat and electric generating system will require about $2.4 million, but it is expected to save $350,000 to $400,000 per year in heating and power costs for ESF, according to the article.

Combined heat and power is considered a clean-energy technology, according to an April 21 NYSERDA news release. The combination uses excess heat from chimneys or smokestacks to supply heat or hot water to buildings, for manufacturing or for other purposes, according to the release.

During the past 10 years, NYSERDA has invested more than $100 million in combined heat and power technology, according to the release.

There is no transmission loss like there is when electricity is transferred over power lines, since combined heat and power is generated on-site, according to the release.

Waste steam from the ESF units will heat four buildings on campus, as well as the Gateway Building, according to The Post-Standard article.

Francis J. Murray Jr., president and CEO of NYSERDA, said in the organization’s press release that combined heat and power technology has the potential to decrease the strain on the state’s electric grid in New York.

‘NYSERDA is proud to support it,’ Murray said in the news release. ‘CHP will help reduce air pollution in the state’s most densely-populated areas, and will also help conserve our limited fossil fuel resources and increase the nation’s energy self-sufficiency.’

chlevin@syr.edu

Published on April 30, 2011 at 12:00 pm