The Williams Record
Summary
The College plans to incur $106 million in debt over the next decade to finance its Energy and Carbon Master Plan, which seeks to reduce campus emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Provost Eiko Siniawer and Vice President for Finance and Operations Mike Wagner presented this figure at the Nov. 6 faculty meeting, adding that the College does not anticipate that it will be able to fundraise for any of the plan’s cost and will finance it entirely through loans. A portion of the College’s recent $105 million bond will go toward initial expenses of the plan, which is still in the planning and design stage.
Preliminary work began in 2021, when the College hired RMF Engineering, an outside consulting group, to jumpstart the initial planning and design for the project. In 2023, Consigli, another construction contractor, joined the project, and the two firms began designing the first stage of construction.
But design work for the district energy plant is on hold until the College determines its energy source — geothermal wells or air-source heat pumps — which would dictate its location, Moran said. In the meantime, Moran’s team is coordinating with other campus planning teams, such as the athletics and wellbeing program study, to look for potential areas of collaboration.
Continue Reading
#News#MemberNewsIDEA#DistrictEnergy#RMFEngineering#WilliamsCollege