Post Independent
Summary
It’s 100 degrees outside on a late August afternoon at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) in Grand Junction. But for those of us touring campus, we hardly notice because the geothermal cooling inside the buildings is working so well. We’re engineers, planners and energy experts from across the country to see one of Colorado’s quiet energy success stories: the university’s thermal energy network (TEN).
Beneath the sidewalks and lawns, a grid of borehole wells and pipes circulate water through the ground — pulling heat out of buildings in summer, delivering it back in winter and sharing it between differing building needs. The system serves nearly every building on campus, providing heating and cooling that’s 500% more efficient than typical systems and saving 60% of the water used by traditional chillers. With each campus expansion or renovation, new buildings are added to the network — proof that smart infrastructure pays back and keeps growing.
The system has been so effective that CMU has been able to reduce tuition and provide scholarships thanks to the energy savings generated. It saves the campus an estimated $1.8 million a year in utility costs.
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