By Emily Badger

Officials from schools and towns all over the country have been traveling to Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., to look at, well, nothing. The school is halfway through the construction of the largest geothermal district heating and cooling system in the country. By the time it’s done, the system will heat and cool the entire campus, completely replacing the university’s ancient coal-fired boilers, and it will serve as one of the best testaments yet to the promise that larger communities – even whole towns and one day cities – could go geothermal in the future as well.

For anyone who wants to travel to central Indiana to see all of this in action, though, the sight is somewhat less impressive than the technology beneath it.

“When universities call, or other entities call and want to come in and look at our system, I have to first tell them, ‘well, there’s not a whole lot you’re going to see except for the building where we have our heat pump chillers, because everything is buried,’” says Jim Lowe, the university’s director of engineering, construction and operations. “There’s nothing to see.”

By the time the project is completed – hopefully, with additional funding, in the next three years – Ball State will have drilled 4,000 holes into its campus, each 400 feet deep and six inches in diameter to thread closed-loop piping that circulates water underground, utilizing the earth itself as a natural heat exchanger. The first 1,800 boreholes were dug under an intramural sports field and a parking lot.

“Two years from now,” Lowe says, “a new student coming to campus, out there to play softball, may not know they’re playing softball above our geothermal field. You wouldn’t know that. It’s literally buried.”

This is basically the one requirement to replicate the project elsewhere, or on a larger scale: open space. Geothermal systems could heat and cool buildings and towns for years into the future, replacing fossil-fuel burning alternatives for a huge reduction in carbon emissions, but you can’t build on top of the underground infrastructure once it’s in place. At Ball State, that parking lot will indefinitely remain some kind of parking lot, and that rec field will likely forever be available for softball games.

Just about any community, though, with a sizable central park (or a scattering of protected open spaces) could attempt this. The system circulates water through the ground, but doesn’t draw on ground water, so the technology isn’t limited to places with ground water to spare.

At Ball State, the whole project is estimated to cost about $80 million – only about $10-$15 million more than the next generation of replacement boilers would have cost. When it finally comes together, the school will save $2 million a year on fuel and utility costs.

“And it’s a forever $2 million savings,” Lowe says.

The school will also wipe out the 85,000 annual tons of carbon dioxide its boilers were emitting, cutting its carbon footprint in half (and cutting out the need to ever comply with EPA regulations on coal-fired boilers again). To be fair, Lowe says, the geothermal system requires some electricity to run, so the net impact will be about 75,000 tons of carbon dioxide avoided. The completed project will heat and cool about 45 buildings, the first of which began to receive water from the system just after Thanksgiving.

“We’ve not found [a system] any larger,” Lowe says. “Will there be one in the future? That could be. That’s OK, because we hope others are learning from this.”

Even the city of Toronto, he says, has called.

“You could capitalize on the fact that you have some municipality that has a large rec field that’s for public use,” he says. “It’s only limited by the territory, by the amount of square footage you can find to install these boreholes.”

And we know most cities have underutilized land lying around that could be put to just this use.

By Angela Mapes Turner | The Journal Gazette

The flat farmlands of northeast Indiana aren’t as vast as the sweeping plains of Texas, the state that leads the nation in wind power.

Developers say there’s plenty of energy to be harnessed in the region’s wind, but how – and if – that happens depends not only on government incentives to big wind developers but home rule in the region’s rural counties.

David Sewell, Whitley County’s executive director of planning and building, describes himself as an “eternal optimist.” He’s been a public planner for 35 years, nearly half that time in Whitley County, and he’s seen his share of land-use battles – landfills, major industrial sites, large farming operations.

The protracted fight over wind energy trumps them all.

“These issues, these structures, they go a little beyond what we normally deal with, as far as land-use jurisdiction goes,” Sewell said. “This one is definitely unique.”

Whitley County leaders, responding to interest by an American wind-energy company hoping to locate in the county, began working on an ordinance last year that would regulate the permitting process for wind turbines – how tall they could be, how far they would be set back from property lines, how they would be maintained.

The draft ordinance was scrapped when it was disclosed the plan commission’s president, David Schilling, had signed paperwork months earlier, in the midst of crafting the ordinance, that indicated he would be willing to lease his land to a wind farm.

Sewell said the plan commission decided to begin the process anew. A committee was created to study the issue and create a report. The committee is made up of three members of the plan commission, three wind farm supporters and three opponents.

The committee’s report will be taken into consideration by the plan commission in a few weeks, along with input from a consultant who was hired after the original draft ordinance had to be rejected.

Sewell sat in on all the committee’s meetings, and he said he’s worked hard to remain neutral on the issue, as he does with any divisive issue in his line of work. The meetings have been cordial, Sewell said, but even the eternal optimist has doubts the committee will reach any sort of consensus.

“The issue appears to come down to, ‘What do you believe?’ ” Sewell said. “There is not one set of facts as far as the impact of any potential wind turbine or farm.”

The newness of the technology, at least in the U.S., plays largely into the division.

A decade ago, Indiana was a literal blank slate on the U.S. Department of Energy’s map of wind-power capacity, or how much power the turbines can produce under ideal weather conditions. It was the same in 2005, even as surrounding states showed small gains.

A lot changed in the second half of the decade. By the end of 2010, Indiana had 1.34 gigawatts of wind-power capacity, more than the 1.21 gigawatts needed to power the fictional DeLorean time machine in the movie “Back to the Future.”

Indiana’s capacity could power between 300,000 to 400,000 homes, based on calculations by the American Wind Energy Association. The organization says that because the wind does not blow all the time, it cannot be the only power source for that many households without some form of storage system.

The state has outpaced all its neighbors except Illinois, which had 2 gigawatts capacity, according to the Department of Energy’s data.

It’s been left to individual municipalities to handle how and where wind companies can locate. Indiana’s first commercial-scale wind farm opened in Benton County, northwest of Lafayette, in 2008. Allen County currently does not have an ordinance regulating wind-energy systems.

Whitley County’s Sewell said having such a short time period to reflect on how the wind farms are affecting rural residents makes it difficult to make an educated decision.

“The issues are so new,” he said. “The people who say, ‘We don’t know’ – they probably don’t.”

Click here to read the entire story.

PRESS RELEASE

Sept. 12, 2011, 8:00 a.m. EDT

The Green Innovators in Business Network (GIBN) – led in partnership with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and DIG IN – is working with local leaders to bring a Solutions Lab to Indianapolis on September 20, 2011. Solutions Labs are one-day, participatory events, where attendees help craft the agenda and spend time actively networking and brainstorming “big ideas” for accelerating business while improving environmental impacts.

“The experience and knowledge needed to make business environmentally sustainable exists in this community,” said David Witzel, director of the EDF Innovation Exchange. “This Solutions Lab will bring together knowledge and experience from around Indianapolis – in business, academics, and government – to help business people increase profits, innovate, and attract talent while also addressing serious environmental challenges.”

GIBN and local partners including Capitol Assets and WFYI will be convening the Indiana Solutions Lab for regional businesses interested in sustainability in manufacturing, clean technology, and other industrial sectors. The event will be an open and candid discussion about how business leaders are growing their business in an energy efficient manner and capitalizing on clean technology, one of the fastest growing sectors of the U.S. economy.

“We are looking forward to the Solutions Lab as an opportunity to leverage the resources and best practices that are available right here in our community,” said Dr. Steve Charlton, Cummins Vice President and Chief Technical Officer – Engine Business. “We hope to engage interested business professionals in an ongoing learning environment to guide the design and development of corporate sustainability initiatives.”

Highlights from the day will include a conversation with Dr. Charlton from Cummins Inc. and a discussion on state policy for sustainability with State Senator Jim Merritt, State Representatives Marianne Sullivan and Wes Culver, and Brandon Seitz, director of Indiana’s Department of Energy. The full agenda for the Indiana Solutions Lab is available online.

For more information about the Indiana Solutions Lab to be held at WFYI in Indianapolis, please visit the event online registration site; or contact Andrea Bazemore (abazemore@capitolassets.net), David Witzel (dwitzel@edf.org) or Odin Zackman (odin@digin.org).

About Green Innovators in Business Network The Green Innovators in Business Network (GIBN) is an open network for all business change makers– those working with and within business to develop innovative approaches to sustainability challenges. For more information on how to become a GIBN member and supporter, visit gibn.org.

About Environmental Defense FundEnvironmental Defense Fund (edf.org), a leading national nonprofit organization, creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. EDF links science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships. For more information, visit edfbusiness.org. Read our blog at blogs.edf.org/business. Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/EDFbiz.

Contact:Jasper Jung, Environmental Defense Fund, jjung@edf.org, (202) 572-3395

SOURCE Environmental Defense Fund

Editorials

Clean bill of health

Northwest Indiana leaders long have said the region needs to build a renewable energy industry here. Finally, that thought is turning into substance.

Fronius USA’s announcement that it will move its U.S. headquarters to Portage represents an initial foray into the renewable energy industry. The 500 jobs associated with the Austrian-based solar power component manufacturer will be a good boost to the region’s economy. It was enough to bring out Gov. Mitch Daniels for last week’s jobs announcement.

Daniels is excited about not just the number of jobs, but also the type of industry Fronius represents. “This is the kind of company we have tried to rebuild the Indiana economy to attract. The whole state will be proud of what happens here,” the governor said.

The company recited familiar assets for Northwest Indiana as reasons for locating here: “We searched for the right location, the right state, and chose Indiana,” said Wolfgang Niedrist, managing director of sales for Fronius USA. Niedrist cited Indiana’s strong education system, solid network of suppliers and, of course, its logistical services. Northwest Indiana is truly the crossroads of America.

The energy industry is at a crossroads. Heavy reliance on oil from the Middle East causes problems with foreign relations and national security. Older coal-burning technology causes environmental problems. Innovative answers to the nation’s energy needs — cheap, clean, reliable sources — are necessary.

Northwest Indiana has one of the nation’s largest oil refineries in BP’s Whiting Refinery. That refinery is completing a $3.8 billion expansion to handle more heavy crude oil from Canada. It also has NuVant Systems, which is developing fuel cell technology at the Purdue Research Park in Merrillville. And now Fronius USA is being added to the region’s energy sector mix.

Northwest Indiana is known for its steel industry and its casinos. It also should be known for innovation in the energy field as well — something in which BP, NuVant and Fronius, among others, are leaders.

Economic development efforts in Northwest Indiana should be strengthened by last week’s Fronius USA announcement.

Bringing additional manufacturers of renewable energy technology to Northwest Indiana can create the pool of talent that not only supplies the existing employers but also fosters innovation that gives entrepreneurship a boost.

Bring other manufacturers to Northwest Indiana to build the wind turbine components and other tools necessary to turn Northwest Indiana into the green energy economy of the future.
Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_6eac7083-9bf3-51ca-b7ae-ed7793d521d4.html#ixzz1SN2p1n6z

Indianapolis will play host to several military experts on July 17th as they speak to a bipartisan forum on the dangers of maintaining the country’s dependance on foreign oil and opportunities for Indiana to lead the country in clean energy.

Retired Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn will speak at the statehouse on how our dependance on foreign oil impacts national security and combat missions. State Representative Mary Ann Sullivan (D-Indianapolis), who is part of the group that invited McGinn to Indy, says McGinn will offer compelling testimony.

“The general public is very unaware of the level of risk that our country is currently experiencing because of our dependance on oil, the fact that we are literally funding our enemies every day,” Sullivan says.

Vice Admiral McGinn will be meeting with Governor Mitch Daniels on Monday and Sullivan says she thinks McGinn will encourage policies at the state level that encourage the development of clean economy businesses.

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