Submitted on January 15, 2010; last updated on May 20, 2013
No information provided
UPDATE: We have completed the installation of Phase I of our campus-wide geothermal system and are now providing district-scale cooling to all 47 buildings on campus and this past winter were able to provide district-scale heating to some 23 buildings. This supports our original stated commitments: The action steps in the BSU Climate Action Plan are framed fundamentally by the Board of Trustees decision in February of 2009 to sanction installation of a ground-source heat pump (geothermal) district heating and cooling system. This geothermal system which will serve 45 buildings on campus is the first major action step in reducing BSU GHG emissions.
UPDATE: We have scheduled for November, 2013 the first of five annual Geothermal Conclaves wherein we will host on our campus an international gathering of designers, contractors, and researchers interested in seeing our facilities first-hand and reporting on the status of approaches to the design, installation and operation of district-scale geothermal heating and cooling systems. This supports our original stated commitments: Use BSU faculty expertise to provide immersive learning opportunities for on-campus students that would be related to their (non-engineering) disciplinary pursuit. Bring to campus the outstanding national leaders in this engineering technology and use BSU faculty to facilitate a multi-layered application of their expertise, including: On campus instruction for engineering personnel whose current skills need to be expanded to include the considerations necessary when designing applications of this technology; On campus instruction for installers and maintenance personnel whose skills in this technology area will become a large part of the green technology movement that soon will be sweeping the country; Issue certificates of completion for those participating. collaborate with Ivy Tech and the network of trade schools in the region to mainline a feeder program for training of the operations managers responsible for such technology once installed.
UPDATE: We are pursuing external funding to implement a field-based experiment/research installation at the west end of the south bore-hole field. This supports our original stated commitments: Use BSU faculty expertise to promote economic modeling of the impact of such technology in the higher education setting using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) protocols . Use BSU faculty expertise to develop GIS-based modeling of campus resources including the location of well heads and piping networks at the district heating/cooling scale Study the impacts of this technology on the scoping and potential for enhancing the performance of other (existing) building systems; Study the impacts of this technology on the scoping and potential for integrating with other (existing) building systems.
UPDATE: As noted above we will be hosting the first of five annual Conclaves at which instructional/workshop opportunities will be available. We also are pursuing external funding to support development of the electronic field trip and will be reporting out on the next steps of action at the Geothermal Conclave in Novemberof 2013. This supports our original stated commitments: Use BSU faculty expertise to assemble an electronic field trip (for national broadcast) of the systems once installed. Use BSU faculty expertise to develop an interactive web-cast instructional course capability with the national experts so that they dont have to leave their operational base to participate in, and contribute to, (on-campus and off-campus) training through Ball State University. Offer such training in modulated fashion so that participants can block time away from current jobs and experts can delimit their time on-campus to provide the instruction; Work with collateral universities to offer an immersive learning experience in this technology on our campus, o for their engineering students o for their business students o for their other students
