$5.2 Million State Grant Clears the Way for a Geothermal Field Under North Campus

The state Energy Office has awarded UW–Porter Falls a $5.2 million efficiency grant to build a geothermal heating and cooling system for four North Campus residence halls. The award was the last piece of funding the project needed. The university says drilling will begin this fall, after move-in.

The design calls for about 180 boreholes, each roughly 500 feet deep, under the North Campus recreation lawn. Water circulating through closed loops in the boreholes picks up the ground’s steady temperature, about 48°F at that depth, and heat pumps in each building use it to heat in winter and cool in summer. The four halls are now heated by natural-gas boilers installed between 1967 and 1984. Two of those boilers have been patched more often than Facilities would like to say in print.

How the project is funded:

• State Energy Office efficiency grant: $5.2 million
• Federal clean-energy rebate, claimed after completion: an estimated $3.4 million
• Campus green revolving fund: $2.1 million, repaid from avoided gas and maintenance costs
• Planned residence-hall maintenance funds already set aside for boiler replacement: $1.6 million

Facilities estimates the system will cut the university’s building emissions by about 9 percent and pay back its added cost in about twelve years. Natural gas for heating is now the largest source of campus emissions, and the gas boilers are the hardest part of the 2045 carbon-neutrality goal described on sustainability tracking and carbon goals.

“We have changed every light bulb and replaced every steam trap we could find. The next real step was always going to be to stop burning gas in the basements of four dorms. Now we have the money to do it.”

— Hanna Lieberg, sustainability coordinator

The recreation lawn will be fenced from September until drilling is done, likely late spring. Intramural flag football and the fall involvement fair will move to the fields beside Millwright Stadium. The lawn will be regraded and reseeded afterward. A small display near the field will show real-time energy data once the system is running.

Engineering students will help monitor the field’s performance through the Renewable Energy & Microgrid Lab. Residents of the affected halls will get a construction notice from Housing in August. Building information is on the residence halls page.

Contact: Office of University Communications, news@uwporterfalls.edu