Solar Power
The SUNY Cobleskill campus features five solar arrays encompassing all three types of electrical inversion available on the market today. The Center for Environmental Science and Technology (CEST) solar array, being the first, became operational in March 2015. Together with three other arrays on campus, more than 400 tons of CO2 has to date been offset. A fifth solar array was installed on campus in October 2021.
You can view the lifetime energy-saving statistics of our solar arrays here.
Monitoring Our Energy and Emissions
Our campus continually monitors energy usage in our student residence halls as an aid in reducing overall energy consumption. This is in addition to the electrical energy monitoring at the substation for the campus. The campus also utilizes continual steam use monitors in Dix, Draper, and Pearson halls.
The campus has emissions monitoring on each of the large, primary boilers in the central boiler room. This monitoring is used by each of the boiler controls to regulate the fuel/air mixture for a more efficient use of energy. Intelligent boiler controls operate the boilers in accordance with predetermined efficiency and need calculations.
The campus uses Fall Break, Winter Break, and Spring Break as energy conservation periods. During these periods, heating is reduced in certain campus buildings. Employees are encouraged to practice other energy-saving methods such as unplugging unused electronics and limiting overhead lighting where possible.
Bouck Hall Natatorium
Two 65kW natural gas turbines heat our swimming pool facility. These turbines provide the necessary heat for the building and pool, and before just burning the natural gas for heat, we harvest the gas’s burning expansion rate in kinetic energy that we turn into 130kW each hour, using the same gas twice, for a total efficiency of 98 percent overall.
