CMU aims to save more than $600,000 over the next two years by reopening a gas turbine at the Central Energy Facility.

The gas turbine was installed in 1991, but was shut down in 2002 because it was not economically efficient, said Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities

Management.

The price of natural gas had increased causing the university to stop using the turbine. However, it was reopened several weeks ago.  “We’re making our own electricity,” Lawrence said. “It’s a very efficient and very sustainable operation.”

The turbine itself reduces the steam into thermal needs such as hot water and heating and cooling, he said. It will generate 55 to 60 percent of the campus’ energy needs.

CMU switched to a boiler after halting the gas turbine in 2002. The energy from the gas turbine is used to heat water, buildings and a small portion is also used for humidification, said Leroy Barnes, director of energy and utilities.

“The turbine was restarted when we determined the price of natural gas was dropping,” Barnes said. “The price of electricity was also increasing.”

The heat recovery generator collects any of the excess heat emitting from the turbine and converts it into energy. The wood burner, which burns wood chips to generate steam, is even carbon neutral, Barnes said.  Facilities Management recently completed repairs on the heat recovery steam generator.

“We have a fairly low carbon footprint compared to other universities,” Barnes said. David Burdette, vice president of Finance and Administrative Services, said CMU co-wrote a grant with Union Township in order to study wind turbines as a plausible alternative energy source. He said wind turbines and other sources of alternative energy, like the gas turbine at CMU, are the right things to implement for the future.

“I’m very positive about the future of alternative energy,” Burdette said.

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