University of Minnesota Morris
Summary
In the year since Ever-Green Energy chose the University of Minnesota Morris for the Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality Program, the two organizations have worked together to develop sustainable energy pathways for the campus to pursue. These pathways will help guide UMN Morris in its plan to achieve full carbon neutrality.
“University of Minnesota Morris was a clear choice for our Roadmap program, considering their sustainability track record and commitment to achieving carbon neutrality,” said Michael Ahern, senior vice president of system development for Ever-Green Energy. “We developed this program to help schools move from planning to implementation, and we know the campus leadership is ready to put this plan into action.”
The goal of this year-long planning effort was to explore how UMN Morris could deliver long-term cost-competitive energy, improve energy resilience and sustainability through utilization of local resources, identify a path to eliminating fossil fuel, and contribute to the campus’s goal of complete carbon neutrality. The resulting report pays particular attention to meeting the heating and cooling demands of the campus, since UMN Morris has already developed a carbon-neutral on-site clean electricity platform.
“We are appreciative of the opportunity to learn from and work with Ever-Green Energy,” says UMN Morris Vice Chancellor for Finance and Facilities Bryan Herrmann. “Their perspective and expertise as a national leader in district heating solutions fit perfectly with our desire to model how rural communities can meet their thermal needs in a carbon-neutral way.”
The carbon neutrality plan focuses on six potential strategies for the campus:
- Using biofuel in the existing heating system
- Increased use of local biomass
- New geothermal
- Heat recovery from a local ethanol plant
- A large solar photovoltaic farm
- Additional wind turbines
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